What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
by CatRocks
Summary: The Dino Rangers have been exposed, could this be an evil plot by the latest criminal mastermind? Of course! As things spiral out of control they are forced to call in back up. A lot of back up.
1. Wait! Come back!

Cat: Hey everyone. This story may start out slow, but it will pick up fairly quickly. It is Dino Ranger centric, though it has every Ranger team included. If there are any specific Rangers you want to see more of, leave me a review and I'd be happy to add them in. Also, some of the chapters may be short, but this entire story is written, and all I have to do is edit, so you can expect daily updates.

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Power Rangers. I also do not own The Lord of the Rings. However, I do own a pretty pony t-shirt.**

"I cannot believe Cassidy told the press about us." Ethan muttered, shaking his head. Both Kira and Conner marveled at how naive the computer geek could be some times. "She even said that she wouldn't."

"Oh. I can totally believe she told." Conner scoffed. They sped along the road, not daring to stay in one place too long.

"Yeah," Kira agreed. "Just when I was actually starting to think that there was a scrap of empathy in that girl." She paused.

"What I can't believe is that Devin went along with it." Ethan said.

"Are you kidding me?" Kira asked. She hadn't thought that even Ethan could be that dense. "He adores Cassidy. He'd go along with anything she says!"

"Anyway," Conner interrupted. "The autograph hounds, are starting to get in the way of my social life."

"Your social life?" Ethan asked. "What about mine?"

"You have a social life?" Conner wondered.

"I'm still trying to get over that guy the other day." Kira said.

"Why?" Conner asked. "What'd he do, try to kiss you or something?"

"Eww!" Kira squealed. "That's really gross. But no, he comes up to me, dressed in full chain mail and asks for a 'single hair' from my 'golden head'." Conner snorted.

"You gave him three, right?" Ethan asked and both rangers started at him.

"No!" Kira said shrilly. "Why would I?"

"Because it was a compliment." Ethan shrugged. Kira raised an eyebrow so he continued. "In the Lord of the Rings, Gimli, who wore full chain mail, asked the prettiest elf he had ever seen for a piece of her hair so that he could encase it in crystal and stare at it in all its glory."

"Eww!" Kira shrieked again. "that's not a compliment! That's just weird!"

"Still though," Conner laughed. "I mean," But the former rangers never got to find out what Conner meant because at the precise moment, someone behind them shouted "I found them! I found the Power Rangers! They're over here!"

Kira, Conner, and Ethan broke into a run. "Every man for himself." Conner cried.

"Oh yeah," Ethan panted. Being a complete geek, Ethan was happiest when he was sitting in front of the computer and had never gotten so much exercise in his life before he took up his Ranger duties. He still wasn't in the best shape. "Easy for you to say. You're Speedy Gonzalas!"

"Who?" Conner asked and Kira rolled her eyes.

"Now isn't the time for chatting." She reminded them loudly and they all dashed in separate directions.

Kira found herself flying past the large dinosaur outside of Anton Mercer's museum and grimaced at her bad luck. A Dino Ranger hanging out at a Dino Museum. Typical. Besides, she'd had enough bad experiences there to last anyone a lifetime or two. _Let's see_, she went over them mentally. _There was detention, and then there was the skeleton in the closest took over my mind thing. And then there was the curse that was put on Ethan. _

Pounding footsteps were a painful reminder of what she should be focusing on, and Kira put on speed, leaving her thoughts behind. Still, while she was tiring, her pursuers seemed to know no weakness. "Gosh, don't these guys ever quit?" Just as she asked that, she caught sight of another large group of people directly ahead of her, coming out of the museum. She skidded to a halt and wheeled around but she was too slow.

The people caught sight of her and ran at her with shouts of "The Yellow Ranger!" These instantly shifted to "Wait! Come back!" as Kira had turned around and run instantly. But just as she got out of sight of that group, she realized that she'd been running directly at the first.

The shadow of the T Rex fell across the road as Kira looked around in all directions, hoping for some clue as to where she should go. Her eyes fell on the forest but she knew better than to go running in there. If she did, it would get searched as thoroughly as the reporters had searched everything else. And if it got searched, they might find the Ruins (A/N I needed a name for Dr. O's basement. Any complaints can be registered through a review), and that was the Ranger's last sanctuary. She muttered a curse at her bad luck and it changed into a strangled scream.

Cat: Again, please review. I am open to flames and feedback.


	2. It's JASON SCOTT!

Cat: Thanks so much to my reviewers! There were some good points brought up that I'd like to clarify. I love Devin and Cassidy. I would never want them slandered in any way. The Dino Rangers saw that their identities were on TV and jumped to conclusions, as they find out much later.

Sunwinged: Way to give away what's coming.

Cat: I haven't given away too much.

Sunwinged: In response to the question about the ruins being destroyed, they were rebuilt for the purposes of this fanfiction.

Cat: Also, in the future, when you see a part that screams either, "RANDOM!" or "OOC!" at you, and it is very drawn out and deliberate, then it is probably foreshadowing and I ask that you don't jump all over me about it, I apologize, I just wanted to throw in some hints of what's to come. Also, in response to some comments saying I need to clarify everything that is happening, things do get much clearer in the chapters to come. Things get explained slowly over time so I don't spend the first five chapters stuffing information down your throats.

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned the Power Rangers because then this story would be in Theaters and called Power Rangers: The Best Movie Ever and not just a fanfic. **

She screamed because four strong hands had grabbed her and pulled her backwards. It was strangled because a fifth hand was over her mouth. She was pulled, struggling wildly, into a hollow on the inside of the T Rex's leg. Kira twisted out of their grasp, and her muscles took a fighting stance of their own accord.

There were several people in her line of sight, not that there weren't more out of her sight. However, the three that she could see held their hands up in a sign of peace. "Woah." Said the man. He was wearing a leather jacket over an oil-stained red shirt.

"Relax." Said a girl in a bright pink shirt. Kira took an instant disliking to the girl, though she would never be able to explain why. Possibly because she seemed like the type of girl who always had to have perfect nails, and who spent hours on her hair and who would actually allow her boyfriend to carry her books. In short, the exact opposite of Kira. It also could have been because she had just helped to pull Kira into a situation where she was entirely uncomfortable and completely outnumbered.

She glanced at the other girl. She was wearing a yellow tank top and a black skort. She was Asian-American and looked like a nice enough person. However nice she may have looked, the girl in yellow grabbed Kira's wrist and tried to pull her to the ground.

Kira yanked away just as about two hundred people, all screaming for the yellow Ranger, ran past. Kira watched with baited breath as they looked around, then shrugged and ran around the back of the building. Kira turned back to the three. "Thanks." She said, if somewhat grudgingly.

"You're the Yellow Ranger, right?" Asked the girl in pink. Having spent the last two weeks being constantly assaulted by reporters and fans alike, and having just escaped from two mobs of adoring patrons, Kira was not exactly happy to find yet another person who wanted to bother her. So, it was easily understandable when Kira completely blew her top, though she would remember that fact as intensely embarrassing in the future.

"I'M NOT A RANGER ANYMORE!"

"We were kinds hoping for a 'yes'" said a familiar male voice behind her. "But I guess that works." Kira spun around.

"Dustin?" He glanced down at his arms and legs.

"Last time I checked."

"Hey Kira." Shane said brightly.

"How's it goin?" Tori asked.

"Well, you probably know how it's goin' since it's been on every TV station in the city." Kira said dryly.

"In the country actually." Said the woman in pink. Kira crossed her arms over her chest with a, who-do-you-think-you-are? Manner.

"Not helping." Shane informed her.

"Oh. Sorry." She blushed hideously and Kira couldn't help but scoff. "And in case you were wondering, I'm Kimberly Heart, the Pink Ranger." Kira raised an eyebrow.

"Riiiiight." She said sarcastically. She pointed at the girl in yellow. "So that would make you Trini, the Yellow Ranger." Her finger moved to the guy. "And you would have to be Jason Scott, the original red Ranger." He nodded.

"You catch on fast." He said. Kira took a step back.

"Jason Scott? The original Red Ranger? You really are him right? I mean, this isn't some kind of practical joke?" The Rangers all laughed, Kimberly particularly shrilly.

"No joke." Jason replied.

"Dr. O'll go ballistic when he finds out!" She paused. "Conner'll go ballistic when he finds out!"

"Hey, don't you mean they'll go prehistoric?" Dustin asked, grinning hopefully. "It's good huh?" No one was even smiling, just staring.

"Dustin, man," Shane said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Give it up." Kira whipped out her cell phone.

"Hey um, Dr. O?" She asked.

"Yeah Kira? Anything wrong?"

"Not really, but the Ninja Rangers just saved me from an insane mob and they brought a couple of friends and I was thinking we could swing by the Ruins to maybe get a little privacy." Kira explained.

"Well that depends. Who is it again?"

"Well, Shane, Tori, and Dustin, and then some guy and two of his friends."

"What guy?" Tommy asked suspiciously.

"Oh," Kira said casually."

"It's just JASON SCOTT!" she ended in a squeal.

"Did you say Jason Scott?" Tommy asked.

"Yup. He's right here." She glanced at him and he smiled warmly. She had to admit, he was really hot. Really really hot, even if he was too old for her. Kira hung up the phone happily.

"Come on." She said, peering out from the safety of the dino. "We're meeting the guys at the Ruins."

"Great." Dustin said cheerfully. "How do we get there?" Kira was already leading them into the woods and Kimberly was glancing around apprehensively. _I'll have to remember to walk Miss Priss into a cobweb or something. _Kira thought with an uncharacteristic stroke of cruelty. _I'll bet she passes out_.

"We're taking the back way." Kira replied.

"Through the woods?" Trini asked hesitantly.

"Uh huh."

"You're sure we won't get lost?" Kimberly asked.

"I'm positive." Kira said coldly. "I know these woods like the back of my hand."

"Really?" Jason asked. "Do you spend a lot of time here?"

"Not really that much." Kira admitted, ducking a low hanging branch. "But it seems like we were always fighting monsters down here."

"Like what?" Trini asked.

"Well, Conner Ethan and I got attacked by a bunch of Tyranadrons over there." Kira began. "Then over there Ethan and Dr. O found the Raptor Riders." She said, indicating the south west.

"Um. Who's Dr. O?" Kimberly asked.

"Oh. He's the lucky one of us." Kira said, purposely avoiding his name. She stepped down several almost hidden stone stepped and entered a long dark hall. "All his papers were easily accessible to our principal, and because we saved her life, she had them destroyed. And then no too many people knew much about him anyway, so all the TV studious got was the back of his head and no one could match it so they stopped running that shot."

"So, who is he?" Kimberly asked again.

"What's the point in telling you when you're going to see for yourself in about thirty seconds?" Kira wondered. The Rangers looked around.

"I don't see anything." Dustin said. Tori rolled her eyes and Kira smiled slightly. She brushed aside a large quantity of spanish moss to reveal the skeleton of a T Rex. A small one, but a skeleton none the less.

She gripped the lower jaw carefully, remembering Conner's words on the day they had found their powers. "This'll get us out of detention forever." She smiled slighlt as she tugged on the bone and the wall slid back.

"Sweet digs you got here." Dustin said. "Get it? 'Digs' as in 'place' and 'dig' as in 'dig up dinosaur bones'?"

"Yeah, we get it man." Shane said, shaking his head. "It just wasn't funny."

"Besides," Jason said in confusion. "Haven't you been here before?"

"It was a joke, man!"

"So, where's Dr. O?" Tori asked, changing the subject loudly.

"I'm right here." Tommy said, stepping out from behind a pillar. He stopped dead and Kimberly fainted.

"Tommy?" She asked weakly. It was a couple minutes later and Tommy had Kimberly propped up against his arm.

"Hey Kim." He smiled. "It's been a while." She scramble to her feet, and brushed off some imaginary dirt. "Kira," Tommy rounded on her. "How come you didn't tell me that Kimberly and Trini were here?"

"How was I supposed to know that it mattered?" Kira wanted to know. Tommy was racking his brain for a reply, but was spared the trouble by the loud entrance of two guys.

Ethan and Conner came bursting down the front stairs. "So, Dr. O." Conner said, not looking up. "You said there was someone you wanted us to meet?" When they hit the first landing, Ethan and Conner turned to the see exactly who the room contained. They both paused.

"Hey Dustin." Conner said gaily. "What's up Shane? Tori?" He moved to hurry down the rest of the stairs but Ethan held out an arm to stop him, almost sending the Ex Red Ranger tumbling down instead of hurrying down. "What?" He asked loudly.

"Don't you know who that is?" Ethan asked.

"Who Dustin Shane and Tori?"

"No."

"Dr. O?"

"No." Ethan's voice had a trace of impatience.

"Kira?" Conner asked. Ethan looked at him as if he was extremely stupid. Which, by comparison, might not have been untrue. He flung an arm out in the direction of the three Originals.

"That's Jason Scott." Conner screwed up his face in extreme concentration.

"I know who he is." He lied. "No don't tell me." He said, though Ethan showed no signs of telling him. "He's…um…" He snapped his fingers in triumph and grinned. "He was the mayor two terms ago." Kira snorted and Dustin laughed out loud.

"He's the Red Ranger?" Jason asked.

"The gem bonded with his DNA. It couldn't have been anyone else." Tommy groaned.

"Oh well." Jason shrugged. "I suppose it is the heart that matters. Right kid?"

"Did I miss something?" Conner wanted to know.

"That's Jason Scott." Ethan repeated. Conner looked at him blankly. "He was the original red dude."

"The Original Red Ranger?" Conner repeated. "Here? He's here?" He jumped the rest of the stairs. "Dude! Can I get your autograph?" He asked, shuffling around desperately for a pen and paper.

"Conner." Kira said. He didn't seem to hear. "Conner." She said, a lot louder, and much firmer, though he didn't stop his quest. "Conner!" Kira shouted and slapped him across the face. That got his attention. He started at her, completely dumbfounded.

The entire room was silent as Kira scolded him. "That's exactly what people are doing to us so cut it out!"

"But Kira." He whinned. "That's Jason Scott. The ORIGINAL RED RANGER!"

"Yeah, and that's Shane, the NINJA STORM RED RANGER. Do you want his autograph too?"

"Woah now." Shane said loudly. "Don't drag me into this!"

"Kira you don't get it. That's the ORIGINAL RED!" Kira sighed and decided to ignore him.

"Forget Conner." Ethan told the other rangers. "He'll be in a daze for the next three days, so just hope we don't need more than two red guys."

"Three." Kimberly corrected automatically.

"Oh that's right, Dr. O's been every color." Ethan said.

"Not every color." Dr. Oliver said, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Ethan hadn't exactly made it sound like a compliment.

"You've been four different colors! That's more then anyone ever!" Ethan said, slightly shrilly.

"Calm down buddy." Trent said, appearing suddenly from the wall. Kimberly screamed and Trini, Dustin and Shane jumped a mile.

"How'd you do that?" Jason asked.

"Dino Gem power." Trent shrugged. "They may not have enough power for morphing anymore, but they still come in handy." Jason glanced at his friends, and then took a threatening step towards Trent.

"You sound just like a villain. Just like Tommy did when he was working for Rita."

"I've been evil." Trent said. "I don't plan on going back if that's what you're asking." Trent rose to the challenge, then up-ed it one. "But, if someone goes around threatening allies then one has to wonder what side they're really on."

"What are you saying?" Jason asked, his eyes narrowed.

"I think you know what I'm saying." Trent replied easily.

"Trent!" Kira admonished.

"Jason." Trini said warning and at the same time. They both took a step back, though they continued to glare.

"So." Ethan said loudly to break up the quiet. "Has anyone seen Haylie lately?"

"She's been playing dumb about the whole Ranger thing." Tommy answered.

"Who's Haylie?" Kimberly asked sharply.

"She owns the local café." Kira explained.

"Haylie knows everything." Ethan added.

"Everything?" Trini asked skeptically.

"Ok, maybe not everything." Kira allowed. "But seriously, sometimes it's scary how much she knows."

"She's our engineer." Tommy informed his friends.

"Were you guys talking about me?" Haylie asked. There were some stifled screams at her sudden entrance.

"Told you." Ethan said.

Cat: I apologize for the Kim-bashing, I just honestly don't think that she and Kira would get along very well. Still, if it is driving you nuts, or you liked it, or you thought this chapter is not good, please review. I'd love tips to make my writing better.


	3. Disaster Written All Over It

Cat: Thanks again to all my reviewers! You guys rock out loud! I have never gotten such a great response to something I've written before.

**Disclaimer: I ain't in no possession of the Power Rangers. Or anything else y'all may wanna sue me for.**

. "So, what are you guys doing here anyway?" Haylie asked, about an hour later, once introductions were done with and the shock had worn off.

"Well," Jason looked at the other rangers. "We're here to get you guys out of here."

"Five exposed, powerless, Rangers are just too good of targets to pass up." Trini agreed.

"Get out us of here, and take us where?" Kira asked.

"We're not sure yet." Shane admitted. "We called these guys hoping that they would know."

"And we've been in touch with the other Rangers." Jason said. "They're all falling over each other to harbor you guys."

"Us? Why would they want to deal with us?" Ethan asked.

"Duh." Conner rolled his eyes. "Why wouldn't they want to hang with me?" Kira pushed him out of his chair and he tumbled to the hard floor. The rangers laughed and Conner got up with what dignity he had left.

"I wanted you to stay with us." Dustin said.

"But." Tori prompted.

"But it would be better if you stayed with someone with powers to help deal with the monsters." Dustin recited.

"Hold on." Conner said. "We haven't even seen any monsters yet." Just then, fifty cogs appeared. The Rangers sprang into fighting stances.

"You were saying?" Shane asked.

"Conner?"

"Yeah, Kira?"

"Never talk again."

"What!"

"Every time you talk, something goes wrong." Conner looked as though he'd like to argue, but he couldn't think of anything to say.

"Rangers." Jason said, reminding them of the present situation. "Let's go." They charged and the cogs charged.

"What are these things?" Ethan wondered as he decked one. Kimberly tripped another and it went flying into a third.

"That's a fair question."

"Cogs." Tommy answered, hitting one of them so hard it fell back and hit two more and all three went careening into the wall.

"They're basically what the Machine Empire had instead of Tyranadrons."

"Great." Conner said dryly. He elbowed one hard in the stomach and it stepped backwards with an 'oof' of pain. Haylie saw her chance with another cog and shoved a paper bag over its head. While it was spinning around blindly she hit it on the head with a wrench and it vanished. Cogs everywhere were vanishing. The Rangers may have been out numbered, but the Dinothunder rangers could have dealt with the cogs all by themselves they were so pathetic.

"Hey Dr. O?"

"Yeah Kira?" He asked, landing a punch in a cog's middle.

"Didn't you and the Zeo Rangers destroy the Machine Empire?"

"I thought we did." Tommy said. "Twice." Kira kicked a last cog and the room was once again free of random bad guys. At least, as far as they knew.

"So, are we getting out of here or not?" Conner asked. Jason smiled, shaking his head at his replacement. Then he straightened.

"Right. Well, we talked it over and decided that if you guys are okay with it, it would probably be best for you up on the Animarium." Jason said.

"With the Wild Force Rangers?" Tommy asked. Trini nodded.

"That would rock!" Ethan said instantly. "Did you know that their base is a floating island?"

"Sounds sweet." Conner agreed.

"If we have to go into hiding, I wouldn't mind that so much." Kira said hesitantly.

"And I don't mean floating on water. It's literally in the air." Ethan continued as though his friends hadn't spoken.

"You're sure this is all right?" Haylie asked for the hundredth time two days later.

"Of course it's all right." Shayla repeated.

"But there's a bunch of Zords too and—"

"Send them too. We've got plenty of space."

"Yes but—"

"Relax Haylie." Shayla instructed. "The Rangers won't have it any other way."

"Have you guys seen Trent?" Kira asked.

"Nope." Conner shrugged.

"So Dr Oliver." Ethan said. "You're staying here?" Tommy nodded.

"I don't want to impose more than necessary."

"But, I thought the whole point was that we were being targeted." Conner said in confusion.

"I think I can take care of myself."

"Whatever dude, but don't come crying to me when you get attacked."

"Don't call me 'dude'." Ordered Tommy. Even as he did so he knew that it was pointless. He told Conner to stop calling him 'dude' every other week, but that didn't stop him.

"Kira." A voice hissed. Trent pulled Kira around a pillar and placed a finger over her lips to keep her quiet. "I'm not going."

"You're not?" Kira whispered. "Why not?"

"Because I'm not going into hiding Kira." Trent replied. "I'm not ashamed of being a Ranger and you shouldn't be either."

"I'm not." Kira said, completely dumbfounded that he could think something like that.

"Then stay here with me." Trent told her. Kira's mouth moved but no sound came out. Not only was she desperate to get away, at least until all the commotion died down, but it was supposedly safer, and she was looking forward to meeting some other Rangers. Thinking about it, she couldn't come up with any reason not to go. Unsure how to communicate this to Trent, she paused. She was spared from replying by Tommy's voice.

"Kira. Conner. Ethan. Come on." The three met up with him in the center of the Ruins. "You're going to stay with the Wild Force rangers." He said slowly. Conner rolled his eyes and Ethan smiled slightly. "You're to be nice and respectful. Got that?" Conner was now holding up one hand and clamping it open and shut in a parody of Tommy. All the Rangers were cracking up, save for the teacher of course. He was glaring at Conner, who immediately dropped into an innocent grin. "Obviously not." He answered his own question. "Anyway, I've arranged an invisiportal—"

"You've arranged?" Haylie asked loudly.

"All right, _Haylie's_ arranged an invisiportal," Tommy corrected himself. The Rangers were cracking up at how Tommy was consistently being interrupted, and several of them mentally swore that they weren't going to let Tommy string five words together for the rest of the day. The only people not partaking in the fun was Trent, who was no where to be seen, and Kimberly who had been totally silent in her ex-boyfriend's presence. "It'll take you directly to Turtle—"

"Turtle Cove?" Ethan interrupted. "Really? Cause, you know, I totally wasn't sure." Tommy grit his teeth together in what was intended to be a smile. He Looked at Ethan threateningly.

"Keep that up and I will tell your mother about _the thing_." Ethan's smile faded instantly. Tommy looked exceptionally proud of himself as he continued instructing his former students, this time without interruptions. "The Rangers'll meet you there." He looked at them each seriously. "Whatever you do," He warned. "Don't cause trouble. Use your common sense and you should be ok." Conner (who was either smart enough to call Tommy's bluff or stupid enough to fail to realize that Tommy's threat to Ethan extended to him as well) raised a hand mockingly. Tommy sighed deeply. "Yes Conner?"

"What if we don't have any common sense?"

"Conner, if I was still your teacher, you'd be on your way to the office by now." Tommy informed him. Conner was very lucky that his former teacher had been bluffing or his parents would not have been happy. Not to mention that all the hush money he'd given his brother would have been for nothing.

"Aw, give 'em a break. They're just kids." Jason said.

"Ya hear that Dr. O? Give us a break." Ethan laughed. Tommy twitched slightly, then noticed that their most elusive Ranger still hadn't showed.

"Where's Trent?" He wondered.

"He says he's not coming." Kira told them.

"What?" Conner and Ethan asked together.

Kira gave them her why-do-you-think-I-should-know look and said, "That's just what he said."

"There's no time to look for him." Haylie informed them. "The portal will only be open for a second. Get ready." Kira shouldered her duffle bag.

"You guys all told your parents that you're leaving?" Tommy asked.

"Relax Dr. O." Ethan instructed. "We're perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I'm sure you'll take care of it."

"Conner!" Tommy admonished. The former Red Ranger flashed him his winning smile and Tommy sighed heavily.

"You have five…four…" Haylie counted.

"We'll be seeing you." Ethan said.

"Hey Conner, I'll be stopping by every now and then to make sure you're ok." Jason told him and Conner looked very excited.

"Three…"

"Really? Oh that be great and---" He was talking a mile a minute.

"Slow down there cowboy." Kira said and Conner shut up instantly.

"Two…"

"Keep the boys in line Kira!" Trini piped.

"You know it." Kira replied. "See ya." She waved.

"One."

Green light filled the room, and when it faded, it left the Rangers blinking out the sun spots. "This has 'disaster' written all over it." Tommy groaned.

"I'm sure they'll be fine Tommy." Kimberly assured him. Tommy removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes in response.

"Yeah." Dustin agreed. "I mean, what could possibly go wrong?" Everyone in the room groaned loudly.

"Thanks a lot man." Shane muttered. Dustin was utterly bewildered.

"What'd I say?"

"You jinxed it buddy." Jason informed him. "You jinxed it."

Cat: Please review! I tried to make this chapter include more humor and I could use some feedback on it.


	4. You've Told Them 4 Times

Cat: Reviews! YAY! As thanks I give you all the longest chapter yet. It's mostly humor with a tiny itsy-bitsy battle at the end. One quick note, I introduce the Ankylozord in this chapter. I like him. I think he's cute and he kicks butt. Therefore you will be seeing a lot of him. Please don't ask where the other auxiliary zords are. They're there; I just don't feel like writing about them. Also, as to how he got un-self destructed, Haylie seriously needs a hobby, as we have seen on the show several times. After all the zords blew up, fixing them became her new task.

**Disclaimer: Back you fiendish lawyers! Back I say! **

"What are we doing here again?" Max asked.

"We're meeting the DinoThunder Rangers." Taylor replied.

"And why exactly are they in trouble?" He asked.

"Max!" Alyssa admonished. "Don't you watch the news?" Max looked at her blankly.

"Why would I?" Taylor rolled her eyes.

"Um. Isn't this where we were supposed to meet them?" Danny asked, glancing around. They were out in a secluded section of Turtle Cove Park, and there were no other people in sight.

"Maybe they got lost." Alyssa suggested.

"Maybe they stayed home." Max said hopefully and the others glared at him. "I'm sorry, but it's cold and wet out here." He was right, it had been raining and Turtle Cove was below the clouds and the Animarium above it, so the perfect weather that they were used to just didn't apply on solid ground.

There was a very loud crash from every direction around them and the Rangers circled up instinctively, scanning the bushes for any signs of hostile movement.

"That was the worst landing Haylie has ever arranged." A grumpy male voice said from one of the soggy bushes. He pulled himself out of it, covered in small scratches and itching like crazy. Looking at his feet, Cole identified poison ivy and instantly felt sorry for him. There was a good deal of splashing in the little pond on the other side of them and The Rangers watched a wet, bedraggled teen emerge from the filthy water.

"Yeah." He agreed. "That was definitely the worst."

"Next time," said a girl. She dropped from the branches of a tall tree and landed heavily on the ground. "I'm taking the bus." There were leaves and little twigs in her hair, which she was trying in vain to remove.

"Opps." Said a voice through their communicators. Suddenly all three caught sight of the Wild Force Rangers.

"Um." Said the girl.

"You're Kira, Ethan, and Conner, Right?" asked Alyssa.

"Tell me you don't want an autograph, or a piece of my hair." Kira said nervously.

"No way!" Max laughed.

"We're the Wild Force Rangers." Cole said, extending a hand. "I'm Cole." Conner shook it happily, and Kira's face broke into an easy smile.

"Thank goodness."

"Ok, I'm sorry about the landing guys." Haylie said, her face was reflecting in the water of a pool of water in the Animarium. It was a feat which Ethan had already fully examined, and much to his delight, he couldn't figure out how it was done.

Kira was sitting on the edge of the pool, brushing her hair out, Conner was scratching absently. Ethan was in completely different clothes, his other ones having been hung up somewhere outside the clearing where the girls didn't have to look at them.

"Oh yeah." Conner grumbled. "You're sorry. Just think how sorry we are." Haylie was laughing her head off, and not looking really sorry a bit, so Kira was grateful when Tommy broke in and asked to talk to Shayla. It prevented the conversation from escalating from mild complaints to verbal violence and kept the entire encounter rated G.

"Do you have any idea how cool this is?" Ethan asked, rejoining the Wild Force Rangers. "This place defies all the laws of physics."

"Ethan." Kira said. "You've told them that four times already."

"So, how's being the only girl?" Alyssa asked, struggling for conversation.

"Conner and Ethan aren't that bad." Kira shrugged, sitting down on a bench next to the white ranger.

"If nothing else they're…" She paused, trying to be nice. Or, at least, nice-ish. "Enthusiastic." She decided finally. Alyssa giggled.

"I love to say that I can relate, but I can't really. Only Max is like that."

"Where is Max?" Kira wondered.

"Good question."

"I think he went to go get some dinner." Cole said, catching their conversation.

"He didn't try to make it, did he?" Taylor asked, slightly fearfully.

"No."

"Just checking." She glanced over at Kira. "Very long story. You really don't want to know."

Kira was about to say something, probably to ask exactly what it was that she didn't want to know, when she found herself flat on the ground, a large orange mass pushing into her face. Alyssa let out a little shriek, and Taylor jumped back in fear. A giant eye was staring at her. Kira got to her feet and shoved the orange backwards. "Ankylazord." She laughed. He sat back on his haunches, peering at them. "Sorry about that." Kira said. "He didn't mean anything, did you Ank?"

Cole rested a gentle hand on Ank's head. The zord snorted and carefully lifted Cole upward, then dropped him from about two feet in the air. Both were grinning broadly. "Is he yours?" Cole wondered.

"Yeah." Kira sighed.

"He's pretty cute." Taylor said grudgingly. Ank smiled, and nudged her playfully with his nose.

"Oh." Kira slapped her zord playfully on the tip of his huge nose. "Go do something with your life." Ank looked at her with large puppy dog eyes. "No. I will not play with you." Kira told him. "There are plenty of other zords on this island who'll play with you." Ank made a noise close to a grumble and stalked off. His exit was ruined however, by him breaking into a skip a few feet away.

"Could you really understand what he was saying?" Alyssa wanted to know.

"Sort of." Kira admitted, dusting herself off and sitting back down. "I get more like, feelings." **(A/N If they got their zords under control in Day of the Dino by communicating their thoughts it makes sense that they have a connection, right?)**

"Haven't you gotten him to leave you alone yet?" Ethan asked. Kira glared. "I got Stegozord to cut it out. You just have to be firm."

"Bad example." Conner told him and Ethan realized a second to late what Kira was going to point out.

"Yeah. And then Trent managed to take command of him and nearly blow us bits." Ethan grimaced.

"Fine. Don't take my advice. You're the one who's got to deal with it. Anyway," He pulled out his laptop and set it on his knees.

"You brought that?" Conner asked.

"You brought full soccer gear." Ethan reminded him.

"Did it ever occur to you that you may not get internet access on a floating island?"

"I do. I already checked."

"How?" Taylor asked Kira.

"He probably hacked something."

"He hacks?"

"I don't think he calls it hacking, but pretty much."

"You managed to filter through the global database and gain access to government and private files?" Danny asked. The Wild Force Rangers all stared at him, having never known him to be good with technology, or to have any interest in it.

"It wasn't that hard really, once I got past the first firewall, it was smooth sailing. Wanna see?" Danny leaned in over Ethan's shoulder and they both went off on some complicated description of what Ethan was doing, using a lot of computer terms.

"Would you believe that?" Taylor asked the next day. The eagle zord was flying over head, a stick in its mouth, then dropping it on the other side of the island. Ank would then go tromping through the woods to retrieve it. They'd been doing this for several hours, though neither zord seemed to tire of it.

"As long as I don't have to throw the stick, I don't care who does." Kira said.

"Still, they both seem to be having fun." Alyssa pointed out.

"I give it about five minutes before Eaglezord throws the stick in the water." Taylor said, and as if in response, there was a loud splash.

"I hope Sharkzord doesn't eat him." Alyssa said nervously. As one the three dashed to a cliff overlooking the large lake in the middle of the Animarium. Ank was using his large flat back as a flotation device, and the Shark zord was surfaced and eyeing him carefully. Tigerzord was watching them both, then with the ghost of a smile, he hit the edge of the water with one of his massive paws. A wall of water crashed over both zords and they turned to stare at the tiger.

"I can not believe he just did that." Alyssa said. Sharkzord grinned toothily and used his tail to propel a large quantity of water at the tiger, who jumped at the last second. Instead the water hit Ank, who retaliated accordingly. He blew a stream of water from his mouth and the tiger zord used his back as a stepping stone to dive into the water a few feet away from Sharkzord. A full scale water war ensued.

The three girls just watched in amazement. Until a shadow fell across them. They looked up fearfully, to see the sun completely blocked out by a huge shape. Red Lion leapt from above them and cannon-balled into the water, sending a good deal of it crashing on the girls, even though they were high up. They glanced at each other, at a loss for words. They glanced again over the edge then, "Last one in's a rotten egg!" Taylor shouted and leapt. Kira and Alyssa were right behind her.

"What are you two doing?" Max asked, he and Conner leaning over Ethan and Danny's shoulders to see onto the computer screen.

"Growing flowers." Danny answered shortly.

"On the computer?" asked Conner curiously. responded Ethan cryptically.

"You might not have gotten the memo, but I'm not a computer geek. I'm gonna need a longer sentence then that." Conner informed them.

"Mindless fun." Danny added.

"Yeah see, still not long enough." Agreed Max. Ethan sighed, and glanced over at Danny. He nodded and they both shifted slightly to make room for the other two.

"See, you click here, and the seed is planted and whoosh, you watch it grow. And you click here to get a different kind of flower. And it seems boring, but then you start planting a bunch at the same time and it gets really addicting." Ethan explained eagerly.

"Here, try." Danny urged. Max leaned over then awkwardly and obeyed. He clicked experimentally at first, but was soon pounding on it in excitement.

"Wow. That really is addicting." He pronounced as Ethan pried the computer back from him. "Move over." The boys budged slightly, making room for him on the bench and three sets of eyes locked onto the screen.

Conner glanced over at Shayla, as though searching for comprehension.

"Don't look at me. I don't get it."

"You were the last one in Alyssa." Taylor laughed that night. The three girls were soaked through and were currently arguing over a hairdryer.

"Bisonzord was the last one in." Alyssa argued. Bisonzord snorted and the other zords laughed. Red Lion smiled and blew on the three of them gently. The wind created had them dry in an instant, and Red Lion stepped back looking very proud of himself.

"Thanks." Kira said in surprise. Red Lion nodded and bounded off.

"Look." Alyssa said, nudging Kira. She turned to see Ank asleep under some trees, snoring gently. Kira hid a smile.

"Aw, how sweet is that?" Taylor asked. She started suddenly, snapped from her easy sense of happiness as Eaglezord gave an ear piercing screech. Ank awoke with a start and jumped to his feet. About two hundred gray men were hopping from foot to foot and looking as if they were ready for a fight. Then they charged.

"What are these things?" Kira asked loudly.

"And how did they get here?" Alyssa wondered.

"Whatever they are," Taylor said kicking one hard in the chest, "they picked the wrong gals to mess with."

"Right." Kira agreed, she punched one of the gray things and it vanished. "Man, these aren't any stronger than the cogs." She muttered. Taylor elbowed one in the stomach, and it reeled backwards, then ran directly at her again.

"Oh, so you liked that."

"If we're going to be attacked by random, putrid-type monsters, can't we at least get attacked by ones we recognize?" Alyssa groused, and swept the legs out from under one of the creatures. Alyssa turned to another and flipped him on top of his partner. Ank roared and stomped heavily on a couple of the monsters, when he raised his foot again they were gone. Tigerzord and Eaglezord joined the fray and they almost lazily eliminated the rest of the attackers.

Cat: All you people who haven't reviewed yet, don't you feel left out? Just review and I'll thank you in my author's note too! Also, I try to privately respond to all signed reviews, so feel free to ask questions.


	5. CogPuttyMan?

Cat: Hey all! In the last chapter there was a slight issue, Ethan made a reference to growing flowers online. He actually named the website, but apparently didn't like that too much and took it off, I apologize if this bothered/confused anyone. Also, Merrick will not be present in this fic, I am sparing him the craziness while he continues his struggle to find his place in the world.

Sunwinged: What about the putties?

Cat: Right. The putties are Lord Zedds, but it doesn't play to big of a role. Also, I just found out that the breaks I was putting between switching locations/times weren't showing up online. I'm gonna try a few different ones and hope that they work instead.

Sunwinged: As for Kim, yes, she can be anyone's friend, and we do see a lot of that. She plays a pretty big role later on.

**Disclaimer: Something witty here. **

"Now I get why you were so eager to get here." Max said, when they were through explaining the encounter to the guys. Initially they'd had some trouble getting them away from their computer, but eventually, through persistence and the occasional threat, they'd managed it.

"But what were they?" Taylor asked.

"Putties." Dr. O replied through the water.

"So, we're getting attacked by clay?" Conner asked. Tommy nodded.

"Do you have any idea who their leader is?" Shayla asked.

"None." Tommy admitted.

"Well, it can't be the Master Org." Cole offered.

"Or Mesogog." Conner added.

"I've been in contact with Andros, he says he'll investigate this further. Until then, be on your guard." Tommy's face vanished and Haylie's replaced it.

"Jason and Trini are working on a teleportation system. They'll be joining you as soon as it's finished."

"And what about Kimberly?" Kira asked suddenly. Haylie glanced around furtively and dropped her voice.

"She and Tommy are kinda having a thing right now. It's not official or anything but…" Haylie smiled devilishly. Kira decided that she didn't want to know.

_Flashback_

"Are you and Tommy dating?" Trini asked bluntly.

"No. And if you need help getting Kimberly and Tommy back together, I'm here." Haylie offered casually. Trini marveled at her.

"You really do know everything!"

"I try." She responded. "Anyways, do you have a plan?"

"Actually yes. Are you in?" Haylie nodded and the two conspirators leaned closer together.

"Right, so is Jason clear on the plan?" Haylie asked. Trini nodded. "Good." It was six am and they were both standing outside Haylie's Cyberspace, staring at the stack left by the delivery truck several hours ago.

"Let's do this."

Haylie whipped out her cell phone. "Come on Tommy," she coaxed as the phone rang. "Pick up. Pick up pick up pick up." And he did.

"Who is this?"

"It's Haylie."

"It's six in the morning." He responded groggily.

"I need help."

"It's six in the morning."

"The delivery truck was late. It's just now leaving." She lied.

"It's six in the morning."

"I'll never get everything put away before I open."

"It's six in the morning." Haylie switched from pleading to outright ordering, a tactic which she knew worked very well on the tired Ranger.

"Tommy Oliver. This is your long time friend call you for help. How many times did I stay up with you during school because you couldn't study alone?" She reminded him. Tommy flinched. He was in for it now. "Or what about that paper?"

"You had to bring up the paper."

"Oh yes. So get your butt down here Mr." She ordered and hung up.

"Is he coming?" Trini wondered.

"He'll be here."

"Great. I'll handle Kim." Haylie passed off the phone.

"Hey Kim, it's me." Trini intoned.

"Trini? What are you doing up?"

"Haylie just called. Apparently someone was late or something down at her restaurant and she needs help getting things put away."

"Call Jason." Kimberly suggested with a moan.

"I already did. No answer." She had honestly called him, to remind him to cover for her, but Jason was such a sound sleeper that he really hadn't awoken.

"So just walk down the hall and grab him." Jason and Trini had been staying in the same hotel. However, when they went to book a room for Kim the only one available was to share with Trini, a smoking room. Somewhere along the line the ex gymnast had developed severe asthma and had ended up sleeping in the lobby before the night manager threw her out. She was staying at a different hotel across town where no one minded if she slept in the lobby. (She had a non-smoking room now of course, she'd just asked out of curiosity)

"I tried." That wasn't technically true, but it seemed to do the job. Kimberly groaned heavily.

"I'm coming."

Twenty minutes later Tommy staggered into the storage room where the three girls were quickly shelving drink mixes and spoons. He entered the room with nothing more then a grunt.

"Well good morning to you too." Trini said loudly. She had to admit that the room was starting to feel very cramped. It fit one person easy, two without too much trouble. Three was slightly more awkward, especially with all the stiff from the delivery laying all over the floor. Four people, and Trini was starting to feel slightly claustrophobic.

"Good mornings are for daylight."

"Don't you feel good, helping out a friend?" Trini wondered. Tommy glanced up at Haylie.

"If I say 'no' does it make me a bad person?"

"Yes." Haylie informed him curtly as she slipped through the door.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Tommy shouted.

"I think we might have left something out back." She called over her shoulder.

"More stuff?" Kimberly groaned.

"Oh! That reminds me." Trini lied. "I've got something in the car I wanted to show you. Be back in a sec." And she too left. Just on the other side of the open doorframe, backed up against the wall so neither unsuspecting victim could see, Haylie grinned at her partner in crime.

"Ready?" She asked. Trini nodded and pushed the door shut. Haylie pounced on it, locking it carefully.

"What the hell?" they heard Tommy shout. The two girls giggled softly. Trini wondered briefly how long it was going to take before the two realized that they'd been tricked.

"Sorry you'll be loosing so much business." Trini apologized. Haylie shrugged.

"This is so worth it."

Trini grinned her agreement and glanced down at her watch. "Meet you back here in an hour?"

"Then we'll see if they've worked things out or not." Haylie agreed, grabbing her keys.

_End Flashback_

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Kira?" Conner asked groggily. Kira was pacing franticly.

"Do you realize what time it is?" Ethan wondered. Kira turned to them.

"You know what?" she asked.

"I think that they're a lot more worried about us then they let on."

"Who?" Ethan asked, the fact that it was two AM was showing clearly on his face.

"Dr O, Haylie, Shayla, Jason, everyone!"

"And what exactly makes you think they're worried?" Conner asked.

"Do you realize just how many rangers they've been in contact with since this whole things started?" Kira asked. It was clear by their faces that they hadn't.

"Four different generations!"

"So?" Conner asked.

"Don't you think it's a little weird that they're that obsessed with keeping us safe from monsters as pathetic as cogs and putties?" Obviously Conner and Ethan didn't.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"I'm bored." Conner complained. "What do you guys do all day?" Eaglezord was circling easily overhead. And the sun was high and everyone was feeling hot and lethargic.

"Honestly? Not much." Max replied.

"Great." He said dryly.

"I really hate to agree with him, trust me, I really, really do, but…"

"What do you guys normally do?" Alyssa asked, searching for a possible cure for their boredom.

"Hide from reporters." Kira answered instantly.

"Okay, well, what did you do before that?" Taylor asked.

Kira and Conner glanced at each other. "Fight evil and do homework." They answered in unison.

"Come on." Taylor urged. "You must have done something besides that. Look at Ethan, he's doing fine." They glanced over to where he was propped up against a tree, his computer in his lap.

"Wait until he runs out of battery."

"Well, at least that would be interesting." Conner said.

"Until he realizes that there's no place to charge it out here."

"He could just charge it in town." Danny informed them.

"Wait. We're allowed in town?" Conner asked.

"Yes. Why wouldn't you be?"

"Yes!" Conner shouted. "I'm free! I'M FREE!" He began dashing in the direction of the exit.

"Wait! I'm coming with you!" Kira called after him. Their outing was put on hold instantly by the warning cry of the Eaglezord. It pulled up of it its circle and flapped insanely into the distance.

"Something's goin down!" Taylor shouted and everyone jumped up in a mad dash through the woods after the bird.

"Still bored?" Cole asked.

"I wasn't bored to start with!" Ethan reminded them as they broke into a clearing with a crash. Eaglezord was flying after a large shape, screeching warnings and threats. Conner wasn't sure, but he thought that he saw another shape flying off in the opposite direction, but then he blinked and it was gone. He decided it was better not to mention it because the other Rangers already thought he was stupid, they didn't need to think he was imagining things as well. Ethan looked after the yellow eagle and groaned.

"We'll never catch them." He panted.

"Oh yes we will." Alyssa said happily, and Red Lion loomed over them.

"We're following Eaglezord!" Cole announced. "Come on." It was without a doubt, one of the most thrilling trips Kira had ever taken. They were moving almost faster then the eye could see, carried far by the zord's long legs. They reached the cliff from the day before, and stopped. Two zords were battling it out below. Or more accurately, one zord was assaulting another.

"Eaglezord?" Taylor cried in shock and fear. However it wasn't shock or fear that held Kira motionless.

"Pterazord?" She asked, her voice quiet with disbelief and excitement. _Yes!_ She shouted mentally. Haylie had finally done it, she'd managed to repair all of the zords in the battle with Masogog. The Pertazord, Tricerazord, and Tyranozord had been the base of the megazord, and therefore the most heavily damaged, and Haylie had had doubts about whether they could be fixed. However, it seemed that her utter genius had won out in the end and Kira's favorite zord was whole again.

The pterazord rolled over in midair upon hearing her friend's voice and squawked a greeting. Eaglezord seized his opportunity and pecked sharply at the other zord's eyes. Pterazord cried out sharply and plunged into the water below. Eaglezord dropped into a sharp dive when Red Lion let out a mighty roar. Eaglezord pulled up clumsily, and Sharkzord pushed Pterazord back to the surface, and she promptly took to the air.

Kira and the other Rangers gathered on the ground, as all the island's zords collected. Much to Conner and Ethan's delight, Both Tyranozord and Tricerazord were present, as were Ank, Tigerzord, and Bisonzord. Red Lion looked from Eagle to Ptera and growled.

"He's asking what happened." Cole translated quietly, then listened to Eagle's reply. "He says that Pterazord attacked him and flew off, but Pterazord insists that she didn't." Red Lion muttered irritably. "He tells them that they should just apologize to each other and forget about it. It was a misunderstanding on both parts." Tyrano stepped forward and roared. "He asks why Pterazord has to apologize for getting attacked." Red Lion's response didn't need translating. He leapt, lighting quick, from the rock and slashed Tyrano violently across the muzzle.

"The Lion is king of the jungle." Ethan chanted, as though drilling it into his memory. "The Lion is king of the jungle."

"What are you doing?" Danny asked, oddly blunt.

"Reminding myself to never piss off the Red Lion." Ethan answered and Danny seemed to understand.

"While you're at it, remind yourself to never piss off Taylor."

"Thanks for the tip." Said Ethan sincerely.

"What was that for?" Conner asked loudly. Tyrano was glowering, and preparing to attack.

"Never piss off the Red Lion!" Ethan hissed at him. Conner had tuned Ethan out much earlier that morning when he had been trying to get him involved in the chat room he was sponsoring about Blue Rangers and had simply forgotten to tune him back in. As such he didn't hear the geek's very good advice.

The Red Lion eyed him, then seemed to decide that it wasn't worth it. He spun around on his heels and stalked off. With him gone, the zords disbanded. Ptera flapped up to Kira happily, and Kira embraced the tip of her nose.

"How ya doin girl?" She asked.

"So then, you definitely think that the Eaglezord attacked her for no reason?" Taylor guessed icly. Kira turned sharply.

"I didn't say that. I'm just happy to see her is all. But it's like Red Lion said," Kira told her friend, "It was just a misunderstanding on both parts." Taylor raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really? And what gives you that idea?"

"Eaglezord was looking pretty beat. He was really scratched up, and from what we saw, Pterazord didn't lay a feather on him."

"So?"

"Something attacked Eaglezord. And it wasn't Pterazord. Can we agree on that much?"

"If Pterazord really wasn't what attacked Eaglezord, then what was it?" Taylor asked.

"Mysterious Cog-Putty-Man?" Kira suggested. And she was completely correct.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

A figure, shrouded in shadow, raised a hand to welcome back his faithful zord. The white and black creature looked very pleased with himself. "Good job." The figure said. "The division of the island has begun. It won't be long now."

Cat: The plot thickens!


	6. Did I Miss Something?

Cat: Hey all! I just wanted to give you the heads up that I'm going camping this weekend and therefore won't be able to update for a couple days. I apologize for this delay.

**Disclaimer: Here's where I say that I don't own the Power Rangers. If I don't the people that do own Power Rangers might throw rocks at me. **

Over the next three days, the Rangers weren't sure of anything. First, Stegozord seemed to get slashed by Tiger, but he insisted that he was on the other side of the island at the time. That second case seemed to break the ice, and small cruelties went on hourly. Bison and Tricera locked horns over grazing pastures, and Tyrano and Red Lion ended up butting heads after every scuffle.

Ank, for his part, tried to slip under the radar. He was a Dinozord, and his own hulking orange mass reminded him of that much. The Dinozords were his friends, but so were the Wild Force zords. And they wanted him to choose sides? It was impossible, so he tried to stay out of it. Kira found him quivering in fear one night, and almost cried for the poor creature.

Ptera and Eagle never got over the first argument, and were going at it constantly. Neither Taylor, nor Kira could get them to knock it off. Alyssa tried to reason with Tiger, but he wouldn't let Stego's lies drop either. Conner and Ethan agreed firmly with their zords, and Cole and Danny were very ticked off at them, while Max just remained grateful that Sharkzord lived in the water allowing him to mostly stay out of the whole thing. Still, he often found himself affected by the tension surrounding everything and had taken to hiding on the beach. All in all, the island was at its breaking point. That's when Shayla called in an expert.

"Ok, we're trying the teleportation system for the first time, so we're only going to try to send two." Haylie said. Shayla nodded. "Now, Maya's got an amazing connection with the Galactabeasts, so, if anyone can help on that end, it's her."

"I can't believe we're sending our zords through therapy." Said Conner.

"Hate to be pessimistic, but what's plan B, in case this doesn't work?" Taylor wondered.

"Hide under a rock?" Kira suggested.

"We'll worry about that if and when we have to." Shayla said steadily.

"You ready? Haylie was asking several people behind her. Presumably they were because a second later she said, "Look for them on your side." Two beams of light, one yellow, one pink, appeared in the Animarium, Kimberly and Maya were revealed, looking very tense. They breathed a sigh of relief. Haylie however, was freaking out.

"We've overloaded the system." Her face was fading in and out, and her voice sounded as if it was coming from a badly tuned radio. "We're losing power. We may—" but they never found out what might have happened to the rangers back home, because Haylie cut out as the communications system in the Ruins combusted.

There was a moment of silence then, "Hey guys." Conner said cheerfully. "How's it going?"

"So, I heard you guys had a zord problem." Maya said.

"That's putting it mildly." Taylor said.

"Well, what's happened?" Kimberly wanted to know.

"The island's split." Cole told her. "If we don't do something, they might get violent."

"I don't mean to sound rude," Kira began, looking at Kimberly. Several people tensed. As everyone knows, any sentence that begins with either "I don't mean to be rude" or "No offense but" is doomed to cause problems. "But what are you doing here?"

Kimberly shrugged. "Nothing much really. Tommy asked me if I wanted to come and I was like, 'why not?' and now I'm here." Plus it was the only way to make sure I don't end up locked in another closet. She added silently.

"Oh that is so weird." Kira shivered as she heard someone refer to her science teacher by his first name.

Kimberly, assuming she was talking about her, looked deeply offended. Cole caught on quickly. "You called her teacher "Tommy." He explained. Kira shivered again.

"Oh, you're right, Kira." Conner said. "That is weird."

"No joke." Agreed a mildly scarred Ethan.

There was a familiar tearing cry and everyone looked up. Two yellow specks were going at it yet again, high in the air. One seemed to find something to latch on to and the other was sent plunging to the ground. Eaglezord flapped hard at the last second, preventing injury.

"Pterazord!" Kira screamed.

"Eaglezord knock it off." Taylor ordered. They both were ignored. Instead, Pterazord fell into a sharp dive and Eagle zoomed upward to meet in the middle. Taylor was screaming herself hoarse and so was Kira. Maya decided that maybe an outside influence would be able to get their attention, but she wasn't having any more luck.

"Cut it out!" Kira and Taylor shouted and finally both zords pulled away. They landed gently, chests puffed out proudly and shooting angry glances at each other when ever they thought that their partner wasn't looking. Ptera lifted up in Kira's mind expectantly. Kira glared daggers.

"Oh no." She said loudly. "Don't give me that. You were not defending me!" Eagle cawed shrilly. "She didn't hurt him, did she?" Kira asked quietly. Taylor was running her fingers along every inch of her friend that she could possibly reach.

"I don't think so."

"It's so strange." Maya said to herself.

"What's strange?" Kimberly asked.

"I've never had so much trouble reaching a living creature before."

"Reaching them isn't the hard part." Taylor said dryly. "It's getting them to do what you ask."

Kira turned to her zord in mild surprise. "If you really do whatever I ask, then go and get the other Dinozords. Got that?" Ptera nodded. Kira grinned. "Thanks." She said and Ptera took off obediently.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Taylor asked Eagle. "go and get the others." Eager to show that he was as good as Ptera, Eagle flapped off. A couple minutes later all the zords were clustered around the clearing, the Dino zords on one side, the Wild Force zords on the other. Ank was somewhere in the back, crouching low to avoid being seen.

"Ok, what's the problem guys?" Maya asked the zords. There was silence, though quite a lot of glaring. "Oh come on now. I know something's up." Red Lion growled a reply cautiously.

"They have been interfering in our lives and assaulting us at their leisure." Cole translated. The Pterazord screamed in response. Kira flinched at the volume, then shouted a warning

"Be nice!"

"She says that it was them who have been cruel and unwelcoming, and she reminds them that she was attacked first." Cole told the others. Taylor had already guessed this though because Eagle was straining to get at the other flying zord. She was managing to hold the giant flying beast back by nothing but the sheer force of her glare. Maya flinched as a raging argument erupted.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Cole gave up translating all together, and was trying to tell Red Lion to back off, while Conner was asking Tyrano what the heck was wrong with him. Bison and Tricera were going at it fiercely, Danny requesting that they both stop, and Ethan telling them to. Eagle screamed again Kimberly went very pale. Ank was backing slowly into the trees, and Eagle screamed once more.

Finally, Conner got tired of the whole thing.

"Everyone just SHUT UP!"

Surprisingly enough, silence fell. For a minute everyone just stared at the Ranger. "Wow. I can't believe that actually worked."

"Me neither." Agreed Kimberly.

The Red Lion growled something in a low and controlled tone. "Red Lion says that he knows that they can't leave the Animarium, but that doesn't mean that they have to tolerate the sight of the Dino zords." Cole said, his voice harsh and disbelieving.

"What does that mean?" Kira asked stupidly.

As though answering her, Red Lion turned away and walked calmly off. The other zords followed his lead and disbanded. The Dinozords huffed loudly, then too left. Ank shivered before waddling off.

"Maya, Kimberly, are you all right?" Cole asked

"yeah, we're fine." Maya answered.

"That was," Kimberly searched for the word.

"Scary?" Conner suggested.

"Random?" Max tried.

"Loud." Kim said finally.

"We're all all right." Alyssa said, though she didn't look very all right. "But, uh, where's Kira?"

"Bathroom."

"Oh."

"That was intense." Conner said.

"Who knew they were so steamed?" Ethan agreed. "I'm thinking maybe we should go home."

"I don't want this taken the wrong way," Danny began. That was, of course, another sentence opener that foretold doom and offense. "But maybe, you're—" No one heard the rest of his sentence of doom as seven zords came crashing through the trees.

"What?" Max asked in alarm.

"They say we're going with them." Cole said, looking as though he himself had no clue what Red Lion was talking about.

Conner shifted away, but Tyrano bent down and grabbed him gently in his teeth. Alyssa was suspended by the collar of her vest in the same fashion, and soon all the rangers were being toted away, Red Lion carrying not only Cole, who was arguing fiercely, but Shayla and Max, both of whom where also trying to talk the lion out of it. The Pterazord flew off noisily leaving Maya and Kimberly standing in the middle of the clearing feeling very stupid and out of place.

"Um. What do we do?" Kimberly asked.

"I have no idea."

"Woah." Kira had just come back from the bathroom to find everyone gone. "Did I miss something?"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The zord returned yet again to his master, and cawed his report. The figure jumped up, rage filling him. "What do you mean she got away!" The zord looked mildly frightened, but was used to such outbursts by now and did not flinch. The figure settled and took a deep breath. "It doesn't matter. Thank God for plan B."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The Wild Force zords made camp around the lake, and the Dinozords on the far side of the island, perched on the edge of the cliff. Kira, Kimberly, and Maya trudged through the woods looking for them, but also trying to stay out of sight of the Pterazord in case it tried to carry off Kira. They would need all the help they could get to rescue everyone, and they knew it.

"So what do we do?" Kimberly asked.

"We could try talking to them again." Maya suggested.

"Because that was working so well." Kira stomped all over the idea.

"Well, if you know a way, let's here it."

"My best idea is blackmail, but I'm not too sure how that'd play out."

"It has potential. But considering that it's technically illegal, I suggest we list it as a last resort." Kimberly proposed thoughtfully.

"We could always just—" but they never got to find out what they could always do because at that moment all three girls were teleported elsewhere.

Cat: Yes, short chapter I know. But I couldn't post the next one because it would

give away too much. I wanted to leave you in suspense, cause I'm mean. However, you should all mentally prepare for the identity of Cog-Putty-Man to be revealed! If you've got a guess as to who it is, leave me a review!


	7. Are We There Yet?

Cat: Hey all! No, Lord Zedd is not the mysterious figure, nor does he even make an appearance in this fic. However, the figure will be revealed this chapter. In fact, it'll be revealed in the first few paragraphs of this chapter so hold on to your underwear.

**Disclaimer: If I owned the Power Rangers you'd know. Trust me. **

"—try and…" Maya trailed.

Elsewhere turned out to be a sandy beach with forlorn grasses growing every here and there, as well as a few scraggly trees. From their position on the top of a hill, they could see that they were on a small island, no bigger then the clearing on the Animarium.

"Where are we?" Kimberly asked in her usual, curious manner.

"You mean you don't know?" asked a voice. They spun around, to see Trent grinning broadly.

"Trent?" Kira and Kimberly asked in unison. Kira in disbelief, Kimberly because she had only briefly met the Ranger and honestly wasn't sure it was him.

"I knew you'd recognize me." He said. "Eaglezord didn't do such a good job of recognizing the Dracozord when he attacked him. Blamed it on Pterazord, imagine that."

"You set us up." Kira accused.

"Possibly."

"From the very beginning, didn't you? You're the one who gave the press that tape." Trent examined a cuticle idly.

"I knew you'd figure it out eventually."

"Why? What was the point?"

"The point?" Trent repeated. "The point was to have you rangers destroyed."

"Why?" Maya wondered. "What did we ever do to you?" Trent shrugged.

"It's this whole Dino gem thing." He was positively delighted about being evil and Kimberly was in shock. "See, it turns out, when you thought the spell was broken, it was really just altered. So, instead of attacking insanely and nearly getting myself killed all the time, I've devised a plan that will leave me a powerful, respected ranger. The only Ranger in fact."

"It will not!" Kimberly shouted. "Even if you do destroy us, there are other rangers on the Animarium who'll finish you." Trent laughed.

"If the zords go to war, do you really think that they'll survive? Not a chance. Your friends are pawns in their fight, and the zords themselves are merely pawns in my plan."

"What about Dr. O? He'll figure it out and then you'll be in trouble." Kira said.

"There was recently a very violent explosion down in the Ruins. Very tragic." Kira was gaping at him, and Kimberly looked like she was on the verge of tears. "Oh," Trent said looking up. Dracozord descended quickly and Trent grabbed onto his beak. "This is my ride out of here. I'll see you guys later."

"What?" Maya asked, desperately trying to think up any reason for him to stay. If they were abandoned on such a desolate rock they were toast. "You're just going to leave? What if we escape?"

"You'll have to do it fast." Trent said casually. "The human body can only live about three days without water." Then Draco took off and they were both gone. Kira immediately turned on her communicator.

"Haylie?" She asked. "Haylie are you there?" Her voice cracked and she swallowed hard. "Dr. O? Jason? Trini? Anyone?" There was only static.

"Try someone else." Kimberly encouraged. "We know what your communication system is down, but maybe you can get through other places." Kira nodded.

"Cam? Tori? Are you there?" There was only static.

"It must be the island." Maya said, having just tried the other Galaxy Rangers.

"We're doomed." Kimberly muttered, sinking to her knees in the sand. "It's over."

"What?" Kira asked in surprise. "You're Miss Perky. What's wrong with you?" Kimberly looked up, and Maya was staring too. " We don't have time to waste. We've got to get back to the Animariuim and stop the zords from killing each other. Then we have to get in touch with Dr. O and tell him about Trent. After that we have to find a way to stop Trent." Kira said. It wasn't until she said it out loud that she realized just how impossible it sounded. Still, she refused to show just how daunting it all seemed.

"Kira's right." Maya said and Kira beamed. Pulling Kimberly to her feet Maya continued. "We're Power Rangers. If we don't give up, we'll get through this." Kimberly swallowed hard, then nodded. "Great." Maya said. "We need food, fresh water, and shelter if we're going to survive." Her face dimmed. "Anyone have any ideas?"

"I read Island of the Blue Dolphins once." Kira offered hopefully. "Humans and animals can't drink seawater, so we need to find a river or lake. If we find that, then we're home free." She hated to admit that that was the extent of her knowledge.

"But there isn't a river or lake." Maya said, biting her lower lip. They stood there for a while, Kira staring at the sand at her feet, as though it would magically produce an solution. Maya was chewing on a fingernail absently, and Kimberly was staring off into the distance. When someone finally spoke, they were all surprised to find that it was Miss Perky. "There." She exclaimed, pointing out across the water. There was another island there, which appeared as a blur of green. Maya was shocked she hadn't thought of it before.

"There's nothing here, maybe there's something over there." Kimberly said proudly.

"Back up." Kira instructed. "Are you suggesting we swim?"

"We've got nothing to loose." Maya said.

"Unless we drown." She argued pointedly.

"Would you rather starve?" Maya shot back, equally pointedly.

"Come on Kira. You're the one who said that we don't have time to waste." Kira sighed deeply, they trudged to the edge of the beach. She closed her eyes tightly.

"I'm going to regret this." She muttered and plunged in. The water was icy cold, and sung every bare inch of them. "Oh God, please don't let there be jellyfish."

"Or sharks." Kim agreed. She took a deep breath, steadying herself, then lead on. "Come on." She repeated. The island did not look that far, but about twenty yard in all three realized that as far as swimming was concerned, that island might as well be on a different planet. Still, they'd already agreed that they didn't have any other choice, and turning back would mean they'd still have to swim. There was no where to go but forward.

And as the dreary swim dragged on all three found themselves oddly bored. Completely miserable, but bored nonetheless. And while they swam they had nothing better to do then think about their miseries, which did nothing but draw attention to them and increase them.

There was one interesting part to the entire journey. About two thirds of the way in, Kira found that her prayer for the absence of jellyfish had gone unanswered. Or, more specifically, Kimberly found. She reached out and her arm brushed against something. She panicked, thus causing the creature to panic. And seeing their friend panicking caused both Kira and Maya minor panic as well. Eventually the entire affair was sorted out, though not before Kimberly received several war wounds.

After a while though, they finally flopped down on the far shore, shouting various cries of relief.

"Land!" Kira cried, kissing the ground.

"Solidness!" Kimberly agreed.

"Finally!" sighed Maya. And for a while they could do nothing but lay there in the sun, breathing hard and thinking further about their aching muscles.

They took in what they could without moving. This island was bigger, complete with a mountain—or possibly a volcano—in the distance, and grassy plains in between. There was a light forest and Maya was sure that there must be a creek somewhere nearby. Apparently swimming had been the right choice. Assuming, of course, that they could ever catch their breath enough to ever walk again. Through sheer willpower (attained purely by reminding themselves over and over that they were going to die if they didn't) they got to their feet.

When they stood up again, they immediately started walking. The ability to talk without fear of getting nasty dirty salt water in their mouths did not prevent them from focusing on their miseries. Now they just focused on them loudly.

"Ow. My feet." Kira moaned.

"My legs." Kimberly agreed.

"I hurt all over." Maya agreed.

However, they eventually told her to shut up because as the only one who had any idea how to survive without satellite TV, she was in charge of picking the campsite. Needless to say, neither Kimberly nor Kira was very excited when Maya didn't decide to pitch camp at their feet. Of course they knew that she was right and they needed to find the right spot or they could get eaten by a bear or bit by a poisonous snake, but that didn't make walking any easier.

"Are we there yet?" Kira asked.

"No!" Maya shouted.

"How many times can we ask you that before you kill us?" wondered Kimberly.

"Two." Maya said definitively.

"Are we there yet?" Kira and Kimberly asked in unison. Maya sighed. It was going to be a long hike.

Eventually they found some place that Maya decided was suitable. As far as Kim and Kira were concerned Maya was just being picky and they would have been perfectly happy back over that way somewhere. Maya however, were convinced they'd lucked out.

The three had come across a small cave, there was a small spring was near the entrance and no visible man-eating occupant.

"Are there bats?" Kira asked. "Please tell me there aren't any bats."

"Don't look up." Maya advised. Kira shut her eyes tightly and sat heavily.

Maya said something about trying to find food and left, leaving Kira and Kimberly to try and light a fire all on their own. Kimberly was moving the sticks around restlessly, while Kira had her eyes closed tightly in concentration.

"I remember this." She promised. "We did it with Dr. O this year. Rubbing the two sticks together creates friction, the more speed the more friction." She muttered. "I wish Conner was here, he'd have this thing lit in a heartbeat. Of course, by then Ethan would have rigged up a heating unit from nothing but twigs and leaves." She smiled slightly.

"Do you think he's okay?" Kimberly asked suddenly.

"Who?' Kira started, and then moved over to try out her friction theory.

"Tommy."

"Oh. Him." Kira said. She shuddered again at the use of her teacher's first name. "He's fine. He's always fine."

"How do you know?" There was more then a hint of desperation in her voice.

"Well, he's been frozen in amber, invisible, in a coma, attacked," Kira rattled them off effortlessly. "Chased, strained, put under a lot of stress, been in an explosion—" Just then a spark caught and Kira's fist pounded the air. "Yes!"

"Nice job!" Kimberly said sincerely.

"Wow. I honestly thought this was a cartoon trick."

"Me too."

"Are you worried about them Maya?" Kimberly asked later that night. Kira had gone to sleep hours ago, and the fire was slowly dying. Maya didn't have to ask who 'they' were. It was too obvious.

"Yeah."

"Kira's not."

"Sure she is." Maya replied. "She just doesn't show it."

"I don't understand her at all." Kimberly admitted.

"She's really hard to read. But right now she feels like, if someone points out that the explosion happened and Tommy most likely is dead…well, she just can't handle that right now." Maya glanced at the back of the cave, where Kira's chest was gently rising and falling steadily. "All this stuff with the Pterazord and now it turns out that her ally is evil, her friends are in danger, her mentor might be dead, and she can't do anything about it. She's terrified."

"Maya, do you think they'll be all right?"

"I'm not sure." She said slowly. "Still, I'm almost positive that we aren't the only ones who know that something's wrong." When Kimberly looked at her quizzically Maya continued. "Well, Cam, the Green Samurai Ranger must know by now that something seriously wrong is happening at the Animarium, and I'm sure he's been down to the Ruins to check out the scene there. All it takes is one person and we're off this island and both the Wild Force Rangers and the Dino Rangers are snuck off the island, Tommy gets immediate medical attention, and everything works out."

"Yeah." Kimberly said quietly. "All it takes is one person." Just then the earth shook. Not just a little tremor, but a serious quake. Kira sat straight up and Maya and Kimberly jumped to their feet.

"What's going on?" Kira asked as little pieces of the ceiling began to rain down around them.

"I'm not sure." Kimberly admitted. Kira was on her feet now, and a loud crash informed her that a bigger part of the cave had just fallen in.

"We've gotta get out of here." Maya said and grabbed the nearest person, which just happened to be Kimberly, and ran. They emerged from the cave just as it collapsed completely and they took a second to marvel in their escape. That one wasted second proved to be invaluable though because next they looked up.

Dracozord was staring right at them, and then it took to the air. The zord swooped down at them and the three took off. They more rolled then ran as they tumbled into a ditch, Dracozord crying in their ears. He was right behind them they knew, and they knew it was too late to run and the three girls resorted to desperation. They ducked and covered their heads with their hands, praying as a dark shadow approached. Dracozord settled into the grass beside them.

"Did we die?" Kira asked.

"I don't think so." Kimberly said, looking up. They turned around and their eyes fell on the White DinoThunder Ranger. "On second thought," Kimberly hesitated. The White Ranger laughed and lifted his quill easily.

"You three have to make things difficult, don't you? I guess I'll just have to deal with you myself." He said and prepared to attack. Kira did the first thing that she could think of. She screamed. The White Ranger was caught in the force of her dino power and stumbled backwards.

"Run!" She shouted and they took off. Not spending the time to look back, and not wasting breath on speech, they ran until they found a clump off tall grass near the beach. Diving into it, Kira Kimberly, and Maya hoped that they had not been followed. They heard the White Ranger curse, but his angry shout was far away. Dracozord took to patrolling the island from the sky, and every so often his shape wheeled overhead.

After deeming it safe to speak, and after recovering to the point that they were capable to speaking, Kimberly said, "What was that?"

"Ptera-Scream." Kira said absently, she glanced up, and not seeing the ranger or his zord, relaxed with a heavy sigh.

"I can't believe this is happening."

"How long do you think it'll be before he finds us?" Kimberly asked.

"How long do you think it's possible to hide from a flying dinosaur?" Kira asked dryly.

"We have to get off these islands." Maya declared.

"Any ideas about how to manage that?" Kimberly asked hopefully.

"I'm not swimming." Said Kira forcefully.

"None, but-" the ground shook again and they shot to their feet, trying to look in every direction at once.

"What's happening?" Kimberly asked.

"There!" Maya said, pointing to a spot about a half mile from them. Dracozord flapped back into the sky, then folded back his wings and plunged to the ground. There was another shake and Kira grabbed onto Kimberly for stability, though both were very surprised by it and Kira pulled away immediately.

"He's trying to sink the island." Maya declared.

"Uh uh." Kira said, eyes wide. "Worse." Her eyes were fixed on a large crack that the others couldn't see from their angle. "He's trying to—" She was cut off as Dracozord hit the ground for a third time. The rumble was accompanied by a loud cracking sound and the crack spread. The ground beneath them gave way. Kimberly dropped off the edge. Kira grabbed her instinctively, and Maya grabbed her to keep them both from going over. Kimberly screamed, but stopped after realizing that she was steady. Looking up, she couldn't see Kira's face with the sun behind it, but she could see her straining muscles as Kim's wrists slipped from her grasp. Kimberly shut her eyes tightly. She never wanted to fall off a cliff. She'd actually had a conversation once, where she and her friends discussed the worst ways to die. Having every bone in your body shattered had been almost unanimously agreed upon.

"Kimberly?" Kira asked and her eyes shot back open.

"Yeah?" Great, pleasant conversation while about to drop into a bottomless abyss. Wasn't that perfect? Still, Kira's next words surprised her.

"Do you trust me?" It took Kimberly only a second to decide; though a mere hours ago she wouldn't have been sure. Kira was much younger then she was, inexperienced. Also, she had been less then welcoming towards her. However, her answer was a resounding,

"Yes."

What came next was as shocking as Kira's question, if not more so. Kira let go. Kimberly's eyes widened as she fell. And fell. And fell.

Cat: Oh, cliffie, literally. I couldn't help it. But now you've all got a good idea of what's happening, I could use some feedback and see what y'all think. Yeah, I know that this chapter was all Kira/Kim/Maya, but that's just the way it worked out. You will see other Rangers in the next chapter. A bunch of other Rangers.


	8. It's for the Greater Good

Cat: Hey all! Not a lot of humor in this chapter, but coming up is bunches and bunches and bunches! Next chapter: _Kira Babysits_. Yes, madness galore. However, in the mean time, here's action action action.

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers. I asked Santa if he'd get it for me for Christmas, but he said no. **

And—was caught?

"Andros?" She asked in surprise. The red Astro Ranger nodded. Kimberly noticed that he was flying on his Galaxy Glider and they were zooming upward. Kira and Maya hurried towards the AstroMegaship, though they knew that there was no way that Dracozord could catch them now. They were home free, and they were happy.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Andros released Kimberly who immediately collapsed onto the deck of the ship along with Kira and Maya.

"Thanks." Kira panted. Andros powered down.

"Anytime. Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Barely." Kimberly said.

"How did you know where to find us?" Maya asked.

"I tracked you morpher." Andros replied as though it had been the easiest thing in the world.

"How did you know that you _needed_ to find us?" Kira wanted to know.

"I was trying to contact Tommy. I figured out who's been attacking you it's—"

"Trent." They all three said in unison. "Yeah, we know."

"All right then, I guess all that's left is to get you back home."

"I need to use your computer." Kira said suddenly.

"Huh?"

"Instant messager, e-mail, whatever, but I have got to contact Ethan. There is no way that we can get there fast enough to stop whatever Trent has planned." Maya and Kimberly nodded so Andros complied, steering them towards the bridge where he pressed several dozen buttons before finally pulling up something that Kira could dimly recognize.

'Ethan, it's Kira! Respond!' She typed urgently.

"How do you know he's even on line?" Kimberly asked skeptically.

"We're talking about Ethan, he's always on line." Kira replied, and sure enough a response appeared on the screen.

'How do I know that you're Kira? This is the internet.' Kira rolled her eyes.

"What a time for him to be careful." She grumbled.

'Your middle name is Gerald.'

'All right! So, you are Kira. What's up? Where are you? Are you safe? Man, things are messed up here.'

'Trent's behind everything. He wants the zords to fight. He think's you're gonna die.'

'TRENT?'

'Kim, Maya and I are with the Space Rangers. We're coming. Contact the Wild Force Rangers. Tell them what's up.'

'How am I supposed to do that? They don't have a computer.'

'Think of something!' Kira ordered and logged off.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"What's up?" Conner asked. He was trying to keep his voice low, Tyrano was a few feet away, keeping watch. Tricera and Ptera had been gone for ages.

"Trent's up."

"What's he doing?"

"The super-villain thing."

"What?"

"That was my first thought too." Ethan replied absently, most of his attention was on his computer, which he was staring at sadly. Finally he gulped. "I'll miss you old friend." He told it and pulled off the back.

"What are you doing?" Conner asked in shock.

"Rigging up a communication's system."

"But your computer…"

"I know." Ethan looked like he was about to cry, but shoved the emotion away and got to work.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Now what?" Kimberly asked.

"Now we get to Turtle Cove." Andros announced. "We just need to make a couple stops on the way, think your friends can hold out long enough?" Kira nodded. "Good, now sit down." Andros ordered and they scrambled to get into seats as the ship suddenly took off at breakneck pace.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Ah ha! Check this out." Ethan proudly displayed three objects. None of them looked like a communications device.

"That's great." He said automatically. "How's it work?" Conner asked.

"It's simple." Ethan replied. He held up on of the devices. It looked like nothing more then a mass of wires. Conner looked at it blankly as Ethan explained. "I have successfully managed to split this computer into two. Now we can text message. You type using these numbers here, and the words show up on the screen here." He indicated the other device which looked a lot more like a computer with half a screen and several missing components. "And, the beauty of this baby is that when the other Rangers get this piece, they can type using the keyboard and the words appear here." It didn't look near as simple as Ethan claimed.

"Ethan," Conner clapped him on the back. "I have no idea what you just said, but if it gets us out of here, I'm all for it. The only question now is how do we get it to the Wild Force Rangers?" Just then Ank pushed his face in on them, grinning. Conner and Ethan glanced at each other, then at the machines, then at Ank.

"Hey Ankylozord. Can you do us a favor?"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Um, I don't mean to sound ungrateful or anything, because you know I'm totally glad you saved us and all, but where are we going?" Kira asked nervously.

"We received an urgent call for help from Marble Bay. The Lightspeed Rescue base is overrun." TJ replied absently. Since getting on the ship Maya, Kim, and Kira had noticed that all of the Astro Rangers were very uptight. They had dark circles under their eyes and bustled around the ship constantly. The three girls had tried to find an out of the way place to sit and felt more then useless.

"Maya, Kimberly," Andros called. All three looked up. "Can I speak with you?" Kira began to rise as well but then Andros looked directly at her and added "Privately?" Kira sat back down heavily. Kim and Maya looked back at her apologetically but followed Andros dutifully.

The door to the bridge slid shut behind them and they found themselves alone in the hallway. "I have bad news." He got right to the point. "What Trent told you on the island was true. He does want to be the only Ranger."

"So he's trying to destroy the other Dino Rangers, we follow." Kimberly tried to sum it up but Andros shook his head wearily.

"No, not the only DinoThunder Ranger. The only Power Ranger. Anywhere." Kim clapped a hand over her mouth and Maya gasped.

"Is he nuts?" The pink ranger asked.

"No. He's perfectly sane, and that's why he's dangerous. He must have been working towards this moment for a very long time. Maya." He turned to her. "I know this might be hard, but we lost contact with the Galaxy Rangers several hours ago." Maya's eyes widened and she said nothing. "We thought that you, Kimberly, and TJ could go and provide back up if they need it. If they don't then get them to Angel Grove." Maya swallowed hard, then nodded. Kim looked sympathetically at her. Andros called for TJ and they departed just in time to miss one of the most important TV shows of their lives.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The White Ranger's face filled the entire screen on the bridge. Kira stood up sharply and Astro Rangers came running from all areas of the ship as DECA chimed "There is an incoming transmission."

"Hello Rangers." He said calmly.

"Trent!" Kira said shrilly. "I can't believe you're doing this!"

"Get used to the idea Kira."

"You'll never get away with it." Kira recognized the voice as Tori's. Trent had found a way to broadcast his message to every Ranger simultaneously.

"Don't you see Rangers? I already have. I'm monitoring all of your communications. I know where all of you are, but you don't know where I am."

"It won't take long to find out." Andros snapped.

"I think that you'll be a little too busy worrying about a few other things I'm working on to even think about tracing me."

"What else are you planning Trent?" Kira asked loudly, feeling a lot more like Conner then herself. Trent laughed.

"Haven't I already told you? I will destroy the legacy of power! It's already started."

"Liar." Dustin said instantly. This only caused Trent to laugh harder.

"You mean the Rangers are keeping secrets from each other? You are making this too easy." The Dracozord cawed in the background.

"Opps, that's my cue Rangers. Later." The White Ranger said and cut out.

"Andros?" It was Cam.

"Yes?"

"What exactly was the White Ranger referring to?" Andros paused, then took a deep breath.

"The White Ranger ha successfully eliminated the Alien Rangers. Billy sent the finally communication. Also, we're not sure what has happened to the Phantom Ranger, the Blue Centurion, or the Lost Galaxy Rangers. We've sent envoys out to them. In the mean time we're coming to Earth."

"Great." Cam said sarcastically. "Any more good news?"

"Unfortunately yes. Greg and the twins are on board."

"Then the AstroMegaship will be our backup. You should probably pick up Justin's son Sam as well. It'll be better for all of us." Andros nodded.

"We're almost at Marble Bay." Ashley warned.

"We'll drop by Angel Grove and talk to you again there." Andros offered. "May the Power Protect you." He said and Cam repeated it and blinked off.

There was an instant flurry of movement. "Now remember everybody." Andros said while he, Cassie, and Carlos prepared to descend to Earth. "We've faced impossible odds before. We've won before. This is no different." He finished his brave speech and the ship touched down on what looked like train tracks. It was then that Kira recalled that the Lightspeed base was underwater.

As if on cue there was a tremendous creaking noise and a hanger of some sort lifted itself out of the depths. Cassie, Carlos, and Andros rushed off and glided the distance on their space surfboards.

The Black, Pink, and Red Rangers met a figure part way down and Pink and Black hurried ahead while Red paused. Ashley and Kira watched with interest as Red Ranger patted the figure on the back and then hurried inside the building. The person was running full tilt towards them and Ashley and Kira moved hesitantly towards the door. Half expecting an attack Ashley waited, then she caught sight of the person.

Dana Mitchell was almost unrecognizable. Kira had seen pictures once. But now she was covered in filth and shallow scratches and her eyes were wide with barely controlled panic. In her arms was a six year old child who had wrapped itself tightly around its mother. As soon as she saw who it was Ashley ran to meet her. Dana unceremoniously shoved the child into Ashley's arms. "You've gotta take care of Hannah for me. It's too dangerous in there for a child."

"Right. Right." Ashley said trying to sooth the child and the mother and failing at both. Hannah had started to cry and Ashley was rubbing her back absently. Dana glanced over her shoulder fearfully and turned to go but Ashley held her back. "Dana. You're going to be all right."

"Right." Dana managed a small smile before taking off back into the fray. Ashley hauled Hannah back through the doors and shut them with a secure sounding thump. Kira watched as Ashley put Hannah down on her lap on the bridge and held her there while pressing buttons with the other hand. By the time they were airborne again Hannah had fallen asleep against Ashley's chest.

"How did you do that?" Kira asked. Ashley started, then relaxed upon seeing who it was.

"Sorry, I forgot you were sitting there."

"Great." Kira muttered, then brightened. Maybe now someone could tell her what was going on. "Anyway, what are we supposed to do now?"

"We're going to Angel Grove, to help Justin and anyone who's left there." She said tiredly.

"You know, you really don't look so good." Kira said suddenly.

"I'll be fine."

"Sure. Of course." No one, even someone who hadn't slept in twenty-four hours, could miss the sarcasm in her voice.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Is there a way off the Animarium?' Ethan typed. He had finished relaying everything he knew to the Wild Force Rangers, and was in the process of trying to use their combined knowledge to create some sort of plan.

'The archway in the clearing where we were earlier.'

'Can you get there?' Cole glanced up at the other rangers.

"Well? Any ideas?" Taylor's eyes flickered to Ank, hidden in the trees, and then to Eaglezord who was wheeling overhead, patrolling the entire island.

"I've got one."

'Yes, can you?' Ethan received. He looked over at Conner, who had fallen asleep against his duffle, both exhausted by the day's efforts, and board of the slow proceedings.

"Conner." Than prodded him awake.

"What?" He asked irritably.

"We need a distraction. Can you think of anything?" Conner glanced woefully at his bag.

"One thing." He withdrew his trusty soccer ball and spent a moment just staring at it.

"It's for the greater good." Ethan said, though he deeply sympathized, having cannibalized his computer earlier that evening.

"Farewell buddy." He said and kicked it off in the opposite direction that they were heading. The zords immediately hurried towards the rustling and in the ruckus Conner and Ethan slipped away.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"How'd you guys escape?" Taylor asked once both sets of Rangers were safely back in Turtle Cove.

"Soccer ball, how 'bout you?" Conner replied.

"Ankylozord attacked Eagelzord." Ethan whistled appreciatively.

"Guys, I don't know if I'm the only one to consider this, but we have no where to go. We don't know where Kira, Maya, and Kimberly are, and our zords are probably ripping each other to pieces as we speak." Max said.

"Kira said that they were with the AstroRangers." Conner offered.

"It's possible that now that you are away from the Animarium your communications system will work." Shayla offered.

"Translation?" Conner requested but Ethan was already paging Kira.

"Kira? Are you there?"

"Ethan! Ohmigod! You have no idea what's been going on!" Kira seemed somewhat relieved to hear from him, but Ethan detected a fear in her voice that he was not used to in his kick-butt friend.

"We got away from the zords, that's some good news at least. So now tell us what's up." Ethan said. There was a pause and all of the others crowded around to listen intently. Whatever they expected, they were disappointed.

"I can't tell you, this isn't a secure line. But be careful, Trent's out there somewhere. I gotta go." Kira finished and the connection broke. There was quiet for a moment.

"Well, that sounded cheerful." Ethan said sarcastically.

"I wonder what's happening." Alyssa looked up at the sky as though it would start raining answers.

"Whatever it is, it's big. Bigger then anything we've faced before. We have to be ready." Cole said determinedly.

"Be ready?" Max asked incredulously. "Be ready for what?" No one spoke.

"I know how we might be able to find out." Danny said. They turned to gaze at him. He said softly, "Everything big gets on the TV. Trent proved that. We could flip to the news and see what it tells us."

"That is brilliant!" Ethan declared.

"Trent used the Tv to his advantage, now we're going to use it to ours." Conner declared. He looked at Cole. "Lead on!"

Cat: The story unfolds! Review and tell me how the plot's sounding right about now.


	9. What Does That Mean?

Cat: Hey all! Not so many Rangers, but a short break from most of the action here as we all take a deep breath. There is some action, and obviously some Rangers. Also, I was very loose with years were. The ages of the kids are the ones that I thought worked best for this story. I am assuming that more time past between each season than the show implies, but this is purely for the betterment of this story. There are no elderly Rangers or anything scary like that.

**Disclaimer: If I owned the Power Rangers, it would mean that I'd never have to do Chemistry homework again. That'd be awesome. **

The Astromegaship touched down in a large plaza. "Okay Kira, I'm going to find Justin. You stay on the ship."

"But Mrs. Hammond I—"

"Stay." She ordered, then softened slightly. "And it's Ashley. Just Ashley. I'm not that old." She added and disembarked. Kira stood in the doorway. Ashley had taken Hannah to a deeper part of the ship to be with the other kids where it was safe. Kira felt just like her. Not that she particularly wanted to die, but she didn't want to feel like she was being protected either. She could take care of herself just as well as any other Ranger, even if she was one of the youngest. But no, everyone insisted on keeping her where she was safe.

Ashley hustled out to the middle of the open space and was met by a man Kira had to assume was Justin. He held a squirming bundle tenderly in his arms and he and Ashley talked for a moment before the rest of the Zeo Rangers appeared. Kira watched them talk seriously for a minute before Justin handed the bundle, who must have been Sam, to Ashley. As the yellow ranger turned to return to the ship a hundred aliens appeared. It was clear in the first four minutes of battle how it would end, and it would not be in glorious Ranger fashion.

Kira wondered briefly if she should run out and help or stay and guard this ship, but her question was quickly answered. Ashley made a break for the ship and, panting, pushed Justin's kid into Kira's arms. "Take him, and take off." Ashley instructed.

"What! I can't. I mean, how do you fly this thing?" Ashley smiled slightly.

"DECA can help you. And so can Greg, he knows the basics."

"But—"

"Find your friends, then call Andros." Ashley instructed and dashed off. Kira stared at her for a moment then the baby in her arms gave a violent wail and she started to the present and slammed her hand down on a nearby keypad, sending the door sliding shut. Kira hurried to the bridge and set Sam unceremoniously in a chair and attempted to imitate the way she had seen the AstroRanger communicate with the ship.

"DECA, get Greg." She ordered clumsily. For a minute she thought that the ship might be laughing at her, but quickly discarded the thought as impossible.

Kira felt she had a better chance of actually succeeding if she was dealing with a real human, even if she looked like a complete dork to some boy she'd never met. Kira had prided herself on not being one to go completely crazy when it came to boys. She liked them, but it wasn't constantly on her mind. And there was no way she was going to make an exception for the boy who stumbled onto the bridge.

He had sandy blond hair that fell into his dark eyes and very noticeably tones muscles. He wasn't bad looking, but as soon as she set eyes on her he scowled. "What's with you?" He asked crossing his arms over his chest. "Where's my mother?"

"Ashley says we're leaving. Now." Kira replied, matching his tone.

"Then why do you need me?" Kira looked at him meaningfully. Greg rolled his eyes but moved to the center of the controls.

"DECA, set the standard parameters for flight. Location?" It took Kira a moment to realize that he was talking to her.

"Oh, Turtle Cove." She replied, feeling oddly flustered by his dismissive attitude.

"Set a course for Turtle Cove. Firing engines." He announced and pushed up a lever. The engines flared obediently and the craft hovered a foot in the air. Kira glanced out the window before them. There was a solid wall of aliens of all shapes, sizes, and abilities that she assumed had come from Lothor's army. The Rangers were fighting their hardest, but she figured they could use at least a little help.

"Wait, how do you fire the lasers?" She asked. Greg looked at her, then glanced out the window and it dawned on him what she was thinking.

"DECA, I need the right laser only. Laser strength at low power, beam width one foot." He called to the ship.

"Laser set and ready." It chimed and Greg aimed carefully. He fired three times in quick succession and the Yellow AstroRanger stared at them, she waved franticly for them to leave as monsters began swarming them.

"Okay, we're leaving." Greg announced and pressed an official looking red button. The ship rocketed off, but not without taking out more then half of the army that the rangers had been fighting.

"Excellent." He congratulated himself.

"Wow. Thanks for all your help." Kira said and Greg seemed to remember that she was there.

"Help? I did everything. For a Ranger you're kinda pathetic."

"All right, then thanks for doing everything." Kira decided to let the slur on her Ranger status slide. Now that she wasn't in a panic she was able to size him up. He looked to be about fifteen and Kira wondered what he was doing here. She hadn't heard of him being a Ranger, but then why was he here? Then she remembered. 'Where's my mother?' This was Ashley's son! She sent up a silence squeal of happiness before she remembered that it meant that Greg's mom was in serious danger and she instantly felt somewhat sorry for him.

Greg strode over to where Kira had plopped the now bawling Sam and picked him up, cooing in his ear. He quieted slowly as Greg sped down the hall, Kira following curiously. "You're good with kids." She observed.

"And I suppose you're too busy being a Ranger to babysit." Greg said coldly.

"Actually I'm an only child"

"So am I." Greg said and showed her a room which had clear been converted into a nursery fairly recently. As in, in the last twenty four hours. There were two beds and a rug on the floor along with a couple of blocks but that was about it as far as child's things. There was a map on the wall that someone had inserted several dozen colorful pushpins into, and there was a table with an expensive looking computer on it pushed up against the wall. Hannah was staring at a book that was several years too advanced for her and a pair of twin girls, about three, were snoozing on the bed.

Greg gently pulled the baby out of Kira's awkward grip and Kira was not exactly sorry to let him go. "Hey Sam." He cooed dully. "That's a good boy." He said, bouncing him slightly. "So, what's happened to your buds down in Turtle Cove?" Greg asked the yellow Ranger, offering Sam a blanket off the unoccupied bed.

"Trent happened."

"Well obviously. I meant specifically."

"Trent tricked our zords into tearing each other to pieces." Kira answered.

"Oh." There was silence until, without warning, Sam started to cry. Kira looked mildly panicked as Greg tried several ways to calm him down. He tried rocking him, playing with him, talking to him, and finally he looked at Kira.

"Hold Sam. I'll be back." For the second time that day Kira found herself holding a crying infant.

"What? Where are you going?"

"To get him some milk. He's probably hungry." Greg answered and walked out. He reappeared a couple minutes later with Sam and Kira exactly where he had left them. Kira still looked unsure of that to do, and Sam was still crying. Greg rolled his eyes and sighed as he took the baby back and deftly stuck the bottle in his mouth. Sam looked bewildered for a moment, then began drinking happily.

Just as that crisis was averted Hannah toddled up. She began climbing all over them both. She disturbed Sam, who began crying again, and fell into Kira's lap. "Kira, go read to her or something." Greg grumbled, upset that he had to calm Sam back down. Not only that but the twins had woken up and were fussing.

"How do I do that?" Kira asked, feeling stupider by the second. It didn't help that Greg looked at her as though she had about the same IQ as a rock.

"What do you mean 'how do you do that?'? It's reading! Please tell me that you can read!"

"Of course I can read!"

"Then do it!" Greg ordered and Kira turned right round, sat on the floor which Hannah in her lap, and read her a story. By the time she'd finished the twins were asleep again and Sam had spit up all over Greg, much to Kira's delight. He had cleaned himself up though and now as long as he was holding the baby, the baby was being quiet.

Kira left Hannah looking at the pictures and went to stand next to Greg. She glanced at the twins. From what she'd heard kids that age were supposed to be awful, but they were sleeping like angels. "They're behaving at least." She said nodding towards them.

"My dad thinks that Leo and Kendrix must have drugged them before they sent them here. Otherwise they wouldn't be sleeping so much."

"Oh." Kira cast about for another topic. "What's that a map of?"

"Oh that's nothing. I've been stuck in here for ages, so I'd decided I was going to do something useful and track where all the rangers were."

"So that's what all these points are." Kira said. "Did you notice what I'm noticing?"

"That depends."

"The Rangers are really spread out. What happened to safety in numbers?" Greg had to admit that Kira had a point. He'd taken out all the pins that he wasn't sure about and left only positive facts. They were spread out everywhere, worse then that, they were getting attacked everywhere.

"We are approaching Turutle Cove." DECA announced.

"I'll go." Greg and Kira said at the same time.

"You can't go, you have to stay with Sam and the others." Kira said.

"I have to go. You can't land this ship." Greg retorted.

"But you don't even know who you're looking for." Kira replied.

"Why don't you both go? I can take care of everything." Hannah said. Greg and Kira exchanged a dubious look, but Greg made it work.

"Okay Hannah, why don't you do us a huge favor and take care of your cousins Beth and Kerri?" Hannah's eyes light up and Kira and Greg both headed towards the bridge, Kira cradling Sam.

Greg shouted some stuff at DECA but landed the Megaship without too much trouble. Immediately several people rushed up.

"Hold him." Kira said and handed Sam off and headed outside to greet her fellow DinoRangers and the Wild Force Rangers.

"Kira! Your call had us worried." Alyssa said.

"We can't talk here, come on." She ushered them onto the ship and was about to close the door when Trent appeared on the walkway. Kira brought her fist down on the keypad and the door began to shut and her breathing constricted fearfully. It seemed to Kira to move in slow motion as Trent ran towards her. It inched shut and Trent ate up the few steps between the two of them, but by the time he reached it there was only an inch of space left open and it snapped shut before his eyes.

"Greg! Take off!" Kira shouted. "Now!"

"Hold on everybody!" Greg called as the ship shot upward, sending Trent careening of the platform to land heavily on the pavement. Kira breathed a sigh of relief. Trent wasn't getting them up here.

"Uh, Kira. We might have a problem." Conner called. He was on the bridge with the others and Kira hurried in. The Dracozord was streaking towards them.

"What is that thing?" Greg asked.

"It's Trent."

"Here." Greg passed her Sam and proceeded dashing around pressing buttons all over the place. It was then that Kira noticed that the bridge had been designed to be operated by five people. Greg had been doing it by himself. "Move that lever." He ordered, pointing. Kira hesitantly moved the one she assumed that he was indicating.

"That one?" He didn't bother to respond.

"We'll get into space. The zord shouldn't be able to fly without air." Greg reasoned. "Prepare to leave the atmosphere." He called.

"What does that mean?" Taylor asked.

"Leaving atmosphere." Greg said by way of explanation and the ship jerked violently. Everyone fell to the floor and Sam started crying again. Everyone pulled themselves to their feet shakily and watched nervously as the Dracozord fell away. It tumbled back down through the clouds and vanished from sight.

"Yes!" Kira and Greg exchanged a high five and turned to see the others staring at them. Ethan glanced from Kira, to the baby in her arms, to the other boy, to the baby again, and back to Kira.

"Are you two going out?" He asked, breaking the strange stillness. Kira and Greg looked at each other in horror.

"No!" The said in unison and Ethan didn't want to admit how much better that made him feel. He had no reason to resent anyone that Kira went out with, did he?

"Do I seriously look like I would go out with the bubble-headed blonde?" Greg asked.

"Bubblehead!" Kira repeated.

"Well, look at the facts." Greg said calmly. "You can't fly a ship, you can't babysit, you can't recognize a map of the world, and you can't read." He ticked them off on his fingers.

Kira glared and decided to prove that she was anything but bubble-headed (not that she really trusted any insult Greg had anyways, he'd shown over the last couple hours that he didn't really mean half of what he said) "Okay Mr. I-Can-Do-Everything, here's the deal." She said. Greg braced himself for what was coming. "You go and deal with the kids and I won't tell Daddy what a bad boy you've been."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Greg said firmly.

"Really? Because I know for a fact you were spying. How else would you have found out where all the Rangers were? I seriously doubt that they'd just tell you such sensitive information." Greg said nothing. He knew he was beat, and what was worse, Kira knew it too. "Here ya go. Have fun." She said cheerfully as she thrust Sam on him. Greg grumbled something and dragged his feet as he left, but he was gone and Kira felt very proud of herself.

"Only one problem now." Max said. "Greg might have been a jerk, but he did know how to fly the ship."

"We're not flying it. Not yet anyways." Taylor pointed out.

"Do we even know what we're supposed to do now? Where are the Astro Rangers? This is their ship." Conner said.

"And Where's Maya and Kimberly?"

"Long story." Kira admitted, then turned her attention to the task at hand. "DECA, I need a communications route with Andros."

"Audio communication in place." DECA chimed and Andros' voice came on.

"Yes?"

"Andros this is Kira."

"Kira, don't say who's with you or where you're going." Andros warned.

"Right, but what do you want me to do?"

"I can't tell you, you're on your own." Kira swallowed.

"What do things look like there?" She asked.

"Under control. Don't come looking for us, we'll be fine. Now, just keep moving, and don't leave the ship. I've got to go." Andros finished and the line broke.

"Now what?" Conner asked.

"We do as Andros suggested, we continue moving and we stay onboard the ship." Shayla said.

"But where do we move to?" Danny wondered.

"Somewhere Trent can't get us. Somewhere where we can be useful." Cole mused.

"DECA," Kira said suddenly. "Set a course for Merinoi."

"The Lost Galaxy Rangers." Cole said happily.

"A Lost Galaxy Ranger." Kira corrected. "Hopefully."

"Okay you lost me." Ethan requested.

"Who cares about that?" Conner asked loudly. "All I wanna know is where you got the baby."

Cat: He he. Craziness based a lot on my own siblings. As you can see, more and more Rangers are getting involved in this fic, and there's still lots more where that came from. Now please review if you liked the chapter (or if you hated it)


	10. It's Not Our Fault!

Cat: Hey all! This chapter is a lot more emotional then the chapters that you've seen before. We start to see that Trent is actually managing to do some damage—he's a real threat to them. There is a bunch more humor, and I personally love the contrast between scenes.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers. However, I have decided that the plot of this fic is good enough to take credit for, so I will. I own the plot. I also own Greg, but you can borrow him if you ask nicely.**

Kimberly, Maya, and TJ pulled themselves from the ship. TJ had said it was built for two but could hold three in a pinch. Maya hadn't realized just how much of a pinch it would be. She also didn't realize what TJ had when they'd taken that ship. It was big enough for three, but no more. They didn't expect to be picking up anyone. If Maya had known that she might have felt slightly apprehensive as she stepped out onto her homeworld.

Instead she briefly considered making some complaint about the close quarters, then decided against it. They were her to save her friends after all. Now that she thought about it, she didn't think that Kim had ever met the other Lost Galaxy Rangers, but she'd come along anyway. The brief glow of happiness that this thought accompanied was quickly extinguished as she saw the planet around her.

This area was a forest, or at least, it had been. For miles around there was nothing but charred stumps and smoldering grass. She felt a rush of anger at the person who had set fire to her home. "Who could do something like this?" Kim asked quietly.

"Apparently Trent Fernandez." TJ said dryly then he glanced at Maya. "Are you gonna be okay?"

She took a few halting steps forward without replying then, "Trent's got a lot to answer for. But first we have to find the others." She started off, calling. "Leo? Karone? Kendrix? Damon?"

A hand shot up out of no where and clasped itself over her mouth. She was pulled downward and Kim and TJ gasped as she disappeared into the ground. Maya struggled wildly, blind in the sudden darkness of the underground cavern that she found herself in. Then, with just barely a pause in her struggles to escape, she bit down on the hand that muffled her cries. Much to her surprise the hand let go and her captor jumped back with a cry that sounded a lot like it came from, "Damon?"

"Who else were you expecting?" He asked, nursing his injured hand. Maya hide a smile, then glanced up. There was a small hole that exposed the entrance to the cave and Kim and TJ were gazing into it.

"It's all right. Come on in." Maya said and Kim and TJ exchanged a glance before jumping in. Maya took in her surroundings. They were in a relatively small cave; it held them comfortably enough but probably couldn't shelter too many more. Leo sat on a rock in one corner, staring at the ground, but that was the only other Galaxy Ranger present.

"Where is everybody?" Maya asked. Damon placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Maya," He said slowly. "This is everybody." Maya's eyes widened, and she stood there for a moment, trembling. Then she launched herself at Damon and hugged him hard, sobbing.

"No."

"Oh, Maya. I'm so sorry." Kimberly said. Maya turned around and hugged her too.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Doesn't this thing go any faster?" Conner asked grumpily.

"I don't know how much fuel we've got left. We stay at this speed." Greg replied. Then he raised an eyebrow. "Unless of course you want to float aimless through space for all eternity."

"This speed is fine." Alyssa said quickly and pushed Conner down into one of the black leather swiveling chairs. "Just relax. We'll be there in no time." Conner promptly stood back up.

"How am I supposed to relax when Trent is still out there somewhere?" He motioned towards the window, which showed an awesome view of space.

"The Dracozord can't fly in space. There's no way he can get us here." Taylor, who had been listening in, said. She stopped pouring over the map of the Rangers, which had been dragged onto the bridge earlier, to look at him.

"That didn't stop him from getting at the Lost Galaxy Rangers, did it?" He asked pointedly.

"We don't know for a fact that they died. Until we do, we continue under the assumption that they didn't." She replied firmly. "But if you feel like you have to do something, you can babysit."

"No thanks, I have a little sister and that's enough for me."

"Than stop complaining so much." Alyssa said kindly.

"Lunchtime." Shayla announced as she entered the bridge along with Kira, Max, and Danny. They had decided to take lunch in two shifts, that way half of them could eat and the other half could watch the ship and the kids.

"Not hungry." Greg said immediately.

"Oh no you don't." Taylor replied and grabbed his wrist. She attempted to pull him out of the room but Greg grabbed onto the control panel with his other hand and held on tightly. "You have to eat to keep your strength up." Taylor said, not giving in.

"My strength is up. Look." Greg attempted, but Taylor refused to relent.

"You might as well give up and eat something man." Max advised. "Taylor's so stubborn. Once she gets an idea into her head, there's no stopping her."

"I might be stubborn," Taylor said, addressing Max, "But I'm stubborn and _right_."

"She does have a point Greg." Kira said.

"You traitor." Greg huffed, causing the girls to break into giggles.

"Oh just come on all ready." Taylor said, though Greg just hugged the panel closer. "Alyssa, give me a hand will you?" Alyssa obliged and together they managed to drag him to the door. Greg looked at Kira, eyes narrowed with a good-natured humor.

"I'll get you for this." He promised.

"Don't forget to eat your green vegetables!" Kira called after them and Taylor and Alyssa continued to haul Greg into the cafeteria, inspiring laughter from everyone they passed.

"Uh, Princess!" The uncertain call came from the nursery. She hurried over towards the source of the distress. Kira paused only long enough to tell Max and Danny to watch the control, but not to touch anything, before following.

They burst into the room to behold a scene of complete and utter chaos. Ethan was cradling Sam as far away from his body as possible while also attempting to sooth a crying Hannah. Cole wasn't doing much better. He was trying to keep Beth and Kerri an arm's length away from each other while they were trying to beat each other to a fine powder.

"Oh my." Shayla said and put a hand over her mouth. It was a sad attempt to hide the fact that she was laughing.

"'Oh my' is right." Kira laughed openly, privately glad that only Greg had been there to see her freak out earlier.

Shalya grabbed Sam, neither she nor Kira wasting any time in fixing the situation.

"Diapers, diapers, where are the—Ah ha!" She pulled one out from under the pile of blocks and tossed it Ethan. Barking a command at him he awkwardly got to work.

Then Kira turned to the twins and took one, whether it was Beth or Kerri she wasn't sure, and sat her firmly in her lap.

"Now be good." She grumbled to the struggling girl while Cole tried and failed at a similar task. Eventually the girl in Kira's lap went limp. "Can you be a good girl now?" The child nodded and Kira put her on the floor next to the blocks and turned to Hannah.

"Hey. What's the matter?"

"I'm bored." Hannah whined. "There's no one to play with. They're no fun." She motioned to Cole and Ethan.

"Oh, they can be lots of fun." Kira assured the girl. "They just need you to tell them what to play because they aren't very smart."

"Hey!" Both boys said in unison. Kira looked up at them innocently.

"What? If you were smart things wouldn't have gotten so bad that we had to come rescue you."

"It's not our fault." Ethan protested. "This is a girl's job anyway."

"A 'girl's job'?" Kira repeated, in disbelief. Shayla joined in staring at the computer geek too, not that he noticed.

"Yeah, girl's are better at this sort of thing, and boys are better at..."

"Fighting." Cole supplied.

"Yeah."

"Oh no. You did not just say that." Kira said and Ethan looked surprised, and mildly frightened. The twins were playing with the blocks, taking turns knocking over each other's towers. Kira stood up. "You two had better watch your backs, because I'll prove to you that girls can fight just as well as guys can." Kira threatened and now Ethan looked truly frightened. Even though Cole had never seen Kira fight, the look on his friend's face was enough to warn him that he might be in some serious trouble.

Beth and Kerri had gotten mad at each other again and were chucking the blocks at each other's heads, and Shayla's eyes light up. "Come on now Kira. Be nice. They're just guys after all. We have to make allowances for their intelligence levels." Both boys gaped at the peaceful princess who'd just insulted them as she bent down next to Hannah and spoke to her. "You know Hannah, I think Ethan wants to play horsey, you wanna play with him?"

"Yeah!" Hannah said excitedly.

"No!" Ethan mouthed in horror.

"And Beth, Kerri?" They looked up just as Kerri was about to bring a block crashing down on Beth's head. "Do you want to play blocks with Cole? I'm sure he'd love it."

"No way." Cole said aloud but Beth and Kerri had already dragged him to the floor.

"But," Ethan tried desperately to save himself. Hannah was already trying to get on his back. "If we're both playing, who's going to look after him?" He pointed at Sam.

"I'm sure we can handle it," Kira said casually, "after all, that's what girls are good at, right?" Shalya swept towards the door, where Kira was already waiting. Kira held out a hand, palm up, and Shayla swept her own hand across it. Their fingers briefly caught in a sign that was both congratulations and pride, and the two left with huge, disgusting, grins plastered to their faces.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"I don't get why all the Rangers are getting attacked but us." Tori admitted.

"Maybe it's because Trent can't find the school. He knows where it is, but not where it is." Dustin suggested and the others all stared at him. "It was just a thought."

"No, it's not that it's…" Tori trailed off.

"I think that's the most intelligent thing I've ever heard you say." Shane said bluntly.

"I'll take that as a complement."

"Cam, are you all right?" Sensei asked, bringing attention to the fact that Cam had been staring intently at his computer screen for the past two or three hours.

"Something about Trent's transmission is bothering me." He admitted.

"You mean besides the horrifyingly awful and cruel parts of it?" Tori asked, the Rangers walking over.

"Yeah." He said absently. "Here." Cam pointed. He had the text of Trent's speech pulled up on the screen. "Why did he say 'I will destroy the legacy of the Power Rangers'?"

"Dude," Dustin said, "That's one of those horrifying bits that Tori was talking about. It was kinda supposed top bother you.." He spoke as though Cam were being very slow.

"Well, I know that." Cam said loudly. "I just don't get why he didn't say that he would destroy the Rangers, why 'the legacy'?"

"It sounds bigger somehow. Like it includes more." Shane mused.

"But how can it include more?"

"Maybe there are little baby Rangers running around." Dustin suggested. It was meant as a joke but Cam's eyes widened.

"Ohmigod."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"What's that sound?" Kimberly asked suddenly, the rumble was growing louder by the second.

"I'll go check it out." TJ offered and carefully poked his head up to the surface. The sight awaiting him was more then welcome. He waved his arms over his head in an attempt to flag down the AstroMegaship. "Come on up guys. It's okay." He called down into the cave and slowly the Rangers emerged just as the ship shuddered to a halt.

The ramp extended and the door slid open and TJ, Maya, Kimberly, Leo, and Damon ran for safety. They didn't see anyone around, but that didn't mean that there wasn't anyone. The door slid shut comfortingly and the five received their welcome.

"Maya! Kimberly!" Kira hugged them both and Maya managed a small smile.

"TJ. What's up?" Greg asked and he and TJ bumped fists. Cole poked his head out of the nursery. There was a bruise forming under his eye, and several large bumps on his forehead.

"Leo?" The Red Ranger stepped forward dejectedly. "Thank God!" Ethan's joyous shout could be heard by all and Shayla and Kira burst into laughter and Beth and Kerri were dragged out into the hall. Kira had the suspicion that they had been dragged off of Ethan, but didn't say anything. Leo's eyes lit up and he hurried forward, embracing both of his children tightly.

"Awwww." The girls said in unison and several of the guys rolled their eyes.

"Daddy?" One of the twins said. Kira was pretty sure that this one was Beth, unless of course that it was Kerri. "Where's Mommy?" Maya inhaled sharply and buried her face in Kimberly's shoulder, giving the other Rangers a very bad feeling. Leo paused, seemingly to compose himself.

"Mommy's in a very pretty place in the sky." He said finally.

"When is she coming back?" Kerri asked. Leo hugged his girls once more and Shayla ushered everyone out of earshot.

Cat: Review if that last part made you feel sad. It made me feel sad and I'm the one who wrote it.


	11. Please Don't Do That Again

Cat: Hey all! I have officially gotten 50 reviews! I'm the happiest person alive right now! As thanks, you all get a chapter that it doubly long!

**Disclaimer: Yo no tango los Rangers de Power. Do lawyers understand Spanish? **

"You mean to tell us, that there is a psyco freak trying to murder five innocent kids?" Tori asked.

"Unfortunately that's exactly what I mean."

"That's sick." Dustin said.

"It's profoundly bad is what it is." Cam said.

"Why is that?"

"Because four of them are in one place, I'm not sure about the fifth. She's probably with the Astro Rangers too."

"We have to warn them." Shane said and the others nodded.

"All right, but we have got to be careful. Trent's monitoring all communications." Cam reminded them as he contacted the AstroMegaship.

"This is Cam. Come in." He said.

"Hey Cam." Cole's voice sounded.

"Listen, you have got to get into space and stay there." He said urgently.

"What?" Cole asked loudly.

"You know why I can't explain, just trust me. You are in serious danger."

"Uh Cam," Conner said, "In case you haven't noticed, everyone's in serious danger." Cam heard Trent's contented chuckle and had to fight off the urge to throw up. That would definitely not impress Tori.

"Just, stay in space where it's safe." Cam urged.

"That might not be an option." Cole sounded faint. Then, a voice that Cam didn't recognize rang out. "DECA, ready the lasers. Maximum power."

"Hey Hey!" TJ said loudly. "I'll handle this, Greg. DECA, ready the lasers. Maximum power." He ordered and Cam was cut off.

"What was that?" Tori asked after a pause.

"Apparently Trent just learned how to fly." Shane said.

"There's too many of them!" Taylor said.

"I think most of us noticed that, thanks for the info." Conner grumbled. Taylor glared.

"He didn't get enough sleep." Ethan covered for his teammate quickly. "Please don't kill us." He flinched.

"Oh," Taylor looked for a moment like she wanted to hit him, but decided not to. "You're not worth it." She turned to survey the damage. A couple hundred Velocifighters surrounded them and were firing in all directions. It seemed like every time they took one down another two took its place.

TJ was so frazzled by his attempts to run the ship on his own that he either hadn't noticed the Greg was helping or he was actually grateful for the assistance. Either way the boy looked very proud to be included, so much that he didn't seem to really mind the situation all that much. And the situation was bad. Really really bad.

They were way outnumbered, and the Megaship, while comfortable, was not maneuverable.

"TJ," Cole said. "We've gotta get out of here." TJ nodded.

"DECA, divert all power to the engines." He commanded and pivoted to another panel on the bridge.

"Maximum speed, online." The lights dimmed as their power was sapped. "Hold on tight." He advised and everyone was instantly pinned against the wall as the ship speed off. They shot through the velocifighters and emerged on the other side without slowing down. If they did, they'd be caught for sure.

Knowing this did not make withstanding the G forces any easier and Ethan tried desperately not to throw up his lunch. Instead he decided to think, because thinking always made any hardship easier. At least, in Ethan's world it did. What they needed was a way to throw them off the chase. While he lacked the information about the Megaship that was required to fully formulate a plan, TJ didn't. The solution hit the Rangers like he was in a Subway commercial.

"DECA, adjust course to pass point," TJ then inserted a long stream of numbers and DECA beeped a comply. TJ turned to the others, who had managed to regain their feet as the ship slowed slightly.

"Okay, here's the deal. I'm dropping you off on the moon. Stay there until it's safe. I'm going to try to fight these goons. That should give you some time."

"We're not ditching you." Kira said immediately.

"It makes no sense if all of us get killed. With fewer people the ship's lighter anyways. Besides, you have to make sure that the kids are safe." There were a few grumbles but TJ hurried them out With a shout at Greg to direct them off via the telemorphers.

They entered the cafeteria again, Leo carrying Beth and Kerri, Shayla holding Sam and Kira leading Hannah by the hand. Once there, they all looked around stupidly. Greg was rummaging around in several colored lockers on one wall. He emerged with five Astroblasters.

"Here." He tossed one to the three powerless Dino Rangers who looked at them apprehensively. The next one went to Shayla who, having never used a gun in her life, looked utterly appalled. The last Greg pocketed and then he proceeded to the tubes on the wall. "This is going to be easy, when we get the go-ahead, just slide down the tubes one at a time. Shayla, I think you and Sam can go together because he's small. Hannah'll have to go by herself, and Leo, sir, I'm sorry but it would be too dangerous to carry both of them at the same time."

Leo looked about to refuse to release his children but Kerri piped, "Cole!" And reached for the Ranger. Cole looked very apprehensive as he took the child from her glaring father, but accepted. Kira knelt down to talk to Hannah.

"Hannah, you're going to have to be a big girl and go by yourself, okay?" Hannah sniffed.

"I want Mommy." She said and Taylor leaned over and lifted her up.

"You'll see your mommy again soon." She assured her.

"Promise?"

"I promise." Taylor said and put Hannah back down. Ethan leaned over.

"Do you really think that?" Taylor decided not to validate his statement with a response.

Above them a green light came on and Greg said, "All right, go!" And, one by one, they slide down the brightly colored tubes.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Now what?" Kira asked once they had all assembled on the moon's surface and watched the Megaship zoom away.

"Now we find the MegaWinger." Greg said and set off.

"Wait, didn't TJ tell us to stay here?" Alyssa asked.

"Yeah," Greg replied easily, not stopping his quest. He was so far ahead now that they others trotted to catch up with him.

"But, don't you think we should listen?" Alyssa persisted. Greg stopped and looked at her.

"I don't know about you, but I am not staying on this stupid God-forsaken rock while some idiot tries to murder my parents." He said loudly and then continued walking. Alyssa couldn't find anything wrong with this, and found instead that she agreed whole-heartedly with him so she was silent.

After a long pause she said, "Doesn't the MegaWinger belong to the Silver Ranger?"

"Uncle Zhane died when he tried to help the Phantom Ranger and the Blue Centurion." Greg answered matter of factly and Alyssa felt awful at having mentioned it. She decided then to just shut up.

"Hey Greg! Get over here!" Kira called and Greg sighed, muttered something, and left Alyssa leading the search.

"What?" He asked irritably.

"We're getting the Rangers together." She announced. Greg glanced at her, then at Max, Ethan, Shayla, Sam, and Hannah.

"How?" he asked finally.

"We're sending them a message. Something only they would be able to figure out." She answered. "That's what we need you for. You have to help us devise some sort of riddle that only your Dad would be able to find the clues in." It would be hard. Very hard, if not impossible to come up with something like that. Not only that, but they would have to hope that Andros would be able to decode it in time. Despite, or perhaps because of these facts, Greg took an instant liking to the idea.

Between Shayla and the King of Codes, a.k.a. Ethan, they came up with a message for Cam. It used the Mayan number system and then the numbers had to be replaced with the corresponding letter in the alphabet. For example 'stick stone stone' was seven. Since E was one, 'stick stone stone' was equivalent to 'k'. It was long a tedious, but Cam enjoyed long and tedious things. And he was good at them. He would have it figured out in ten minutes tops while it would take Trent a half hour at least, assuming that he knew the Mayan numbers at all.

"He won't." Conner assured them the instant this fear was voiced. "He skipped so much school there's no way he'd ever figure it out."

"You'd know." Kira teased.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Just that Trent was smart enough not to skip on the first day of school." Ethan agreed.

"And that every time he skipped afterwards you were with him." Added Kira pointedly.

Greg and Max came up with their puzzle with a shocking amount of help from Hannah. As opposed to a code it was a pair of sentences that held subtle clues that Greg was certain that only his father could find, let alone interpret. They tried it out on Alyssa and Cole just to be sure. Both Rangers looked at the threesome like they were insane. They had done their work well.

And as a nice bonus Alyssa had found the MegaWinger.

All was well.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Okay, one problem." Kira realized once they had delivered their messages and were all standing in the (admittedly cramped) MegaWinger.

"What's that?" Leo wondered.

"None of us know how to fly this." She pointed out. There was a pause.

"Never fear! Ethan is here!" He stepped forward and sat in the cockpit. "I've watched enough Star Trek for all of us. No worries, I'll have this off the ground in five seconds flat." He said and began examining buttons.

"One Mississippi." Taylor began. Ethan glanced rapidly over the various keys, buttons, and levers. "Two Mississippi." He searched faster, hoping for labels or initials or possibly even an instruction manual. "Three Mississippi." He'd never seen a ship like the MegaWinger in his life, no matter how many sci-fi movies he'd watched. "Four Mississippi." He gulped. "Five Mississippi." Taylor looked around teasingly. "Oh yeah, I'd say we're off the ground."

"Very funny." Ethan said but when he looked back at the controls they could tell he was way over his head. They weren't going anywhere for a while.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Meet us at Gabriel. Don't forget where Tropicanna comes from." Carter repeated.

"It's a riddle. Or a code." Cassie said, partly excited and partly nervous. What if they wouldn't decipher it in time? What if it was bad news?

"Well, let's pick it apart." Joel encouraged.

"Gabriel." Carlos said.

"Anyone know any Gabriels?" There was a murmur of dissent and Carlos shrugged. "That's all I got. Anyone else?"

"Maybe it's a statue. Of the Biblical Angel Gabriel I mean." Dana suggested.

"But there's got to be hundreds of statues." Kelsey argued.

"We'll skip that part and come back to it. Maybe there's some clue in the next line." Andros suggested.

"Don't forget where Tropicanna comes from." Carter repeated the line aloud. "So, anyone know where Tropicanna comes from?"

"Florida?" Andros offered.

"I know!" Joel said proudly. "It's as close to the grove as you can get!" He repeated the popular motto of the company.

"And where's the grove Joel?" Kelsey teased. Joel deflated.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Was that supposed to mean anything?" Tori asked. Cam was scanning the text on his screen and he began typing happily.

"Don't tell me you actually understood that!" Shane said in amazement.

"Of course, it's the Mayan numerical system."

"Hate to burst your bubble, but 'stone' doesn't sound much like a number to me." Dustin said.

"They used stones to represent one. It's brilliantly simple." He said, continuing to work out the long list of numbers. Shane wasn't sure if he'd have classified the code as "simple" but that they'd managed to find one that Cam knew so easily, but that everyone else thought was gibberish was certainly "brilliant." As he watched Cam typing furiously, he shrugged and decided that it really wasn't worth it to mention the lack of simplicity to Cam. If he thought it was simple, all the better for them.

Cam finished; his sense of accomplishment bolstered by the news. Something big was gong down. He read the last bit aloud.

"Pass it on." He muttered, and then turned to the others. "Tori, we need to get a message to Blake. Shane, Dustin, same thing goes for Hunter." He announced.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"We've been thinking about the same thing for the last half an hour." Cassie said. The others weren't sure if it was a complaint or a comment regarding how incompetent they all were.

"Yeah," Kelsey agreed. "So far all we've got is an angel and a grove." She stopped suddenly. Everyone was staring at her, and she was amazed at what she had just said.

"Angel Grove. Brilliantly simple." Andros said.

"How can we be sure it isn't just a coincidence?" Carter asked.

"Gabriel." Andros answered. Now that it had been spelled out he saw that it had been staring him in the face the whole time. They looked at him quizzically. "Dana had it right, Gabriel the angel. Angel is my private nickname for Ashley."

"And Ashley was headed to Angel Grove to meet with Justin." Cassie said. Andros nodded. There was another moment where they were still.

"Carter?" Joel asked finally breaking the silence. "You driving?"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Beth and Kerri were asleep against their dad, who was asleep against the wall. Alyssa was asleep against Shayla while Kira was snoozing on her other shoulder. Conner and Ethan were having a staring contest tournament with Max, Danny, Cole and Taylor, who had Hannah's sleeping head in her lap. Maya and Kimberly had both fallen asleep against Damon, who seemed rather uncomfortable to have two girls laying on him. None of them knew exactly how long it had been since any of them had last slept—none of the Rangers were smart enough to wear a watch or had enough free time to really care. Ethan and Greg had been trying to deduce what button did what for at least an hour, but they weren't making much progress.

"It's either this one, this one, or this one." Greg said finally, indicating three buttons right next to each other.

"All right Greg. I'm gonna try something." Ethan informed him then holding one hand over the buttons he chanted, "Eniee meeniee minee moe. Catch a tiger by the toe (no offense Alyssa). If he hollers let him go. Eniee meaniee miniee please-let-this-be-the-right-button moe." He punched the button down, jamming his finger painfully in the process and the engines kicked into life.

"All right!" He said happily. Alyssa and Leo started awake and seemed slightly ashamed that they had fallen asleep at all. Alyssa was apologizing quietly so as not to disturb anyone else and Shayla waved it off just as Ethan said, "Let's get this party started!"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"To get to where're you're going travel from here to here to here to here" Blake repeated the message he had been given quietly to himself. His fingers traced the given points on the map. He just didn't get it! He had plotted the points, and even traced the lines between, but why on earth had Tori told him to stop at these particular points? Half of them were in the water for goodness's sakes!

"Where am I going?" He asked himself. That wasn't really a question and he knew it. He was trying to go to where the other Rangers were. He'd seen on the news that monsters were attacking all over, and had felt very left out when all Cam would tell him was that Trent was watching their conversations. He didn't know where anyone else was, or even who was in trouble. And Cam wouldn't tell him anything about why Trent was behind it. Blake'd gotten the impression that Cam himself didn't know.

Of course, that conversation had been early this morning, at around one a.m. He'd heard nothing until Tori had called him recently, and by now it was getting dark. "I'm Cassidy Cornel, Reefside Reporter." An annoyingly perky, yet vaguely familiar, voice said. Blake jumped to his feet. "Can you give us in interview?"

"Where did you come from?" Blake asked, getting over his fright. He had to admit to himself, being left in the dark had left him edgy, and he had often jumped at his own shadow.

"That's not important. What I want to know is what inspired you to become a motocrosser-person." She stumbled at the end but Blake allowed for that.

"Well I—"

"What's an evorg legna?" Devin asked.

"huh?"

"Your map, it says evorg lenga." Devin explained. Blake looked down. From this distance, it did almost look like the line spelled words. Except it wasn't evorg lenga, it was…Angel Grove!

Blake started. It was brilliantly simple! "Devin you're a genius!" He said loudly, scooping up the map. In the process it got turned to face him.

"Oh it says Angel Grove! That makes more sense."

"Look, uh, Cassidy, I can't do an interview right now. But I promise you can have one as soon as I get back." He said and dashed off.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Cassidy called after him but got no answer.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Ashley!" Andros hissed. His wife wheeled around. She, Kat, and Justin were hiding down an ally, trying to catch their breath. They had effectively defeated a large portion of the attacking force, at the cost of several teammates. After that they had made a run for it. Ashley didn't even know if they were the only three to survive. She had lost sight of everyone else not long into the battle, and no one was sure just how many had escaped to safety. At any rate, she was surprised enough to hear another voice in their hiding spot, let alone someone who had been several cities away.

Andros and the other Lightspeed Rescue Rangers moved into view. "What are you doing here?" Kat asked bluntly.

"We received a message that told us to come to Angel Grove." Andros explained.

"Why?" Ashley wondered.

"As near as we can figure," Kelsey said, "They're trying to land the Megaship." Ashley blinked.

"Are you serious? Why would they do that?"

"We don't know." Carter admitted.

"If they are coming here," Kat said, "We should meet them. Where would they be trying to land?"

"The park." Justin said immediately. "There's plenty of space."

"Cam, come on, we've got to get going." Shane said.

"Just one more minute." Cam was staring fixedly at a small diamond shaped band.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"What is that thing anyway?" Dustin wondered.

"It's metal." Cam answered, sparing a moment to glance at the yellow Ranger as though he'd just misspelled his name. "I'm hoping that if we can charge it with energy, then that energy could be infused in the Dino gems."

"Letting that Rangers morph again." Tori said, smiling.

"One of them, yes. If it works."

"What if it doesn't?" Shane asked darkly.

"Then we're going to be late for nothing."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"What's with all the people?" Kelsey asked at the park. "It's late. And dark."

"Bulk and Skull are sponsoring a midnight pie eating contest." Andros answered.

"How'd you know that?" Kat inquired.

"Over there." Andros pointed at a large sign stuck in the ground at the head of four long picnic tables. There were pies covering every square inch of the tables, and people packed tightly on the benches. The sign in question read 'Bulk and Skull's Midnight Pie Eating Contest'. Kat made an 'ooh' motion.

"We should keep moving. They can't land a huge ship in this crowd." Ashley advised.

"But the crowd will provide good cover, just in case Trent shows up." Justin argued.

"He's got a point." Dana said. "We're close enough to see where the ship lands, but nine Rangers walking around could attract attention that we don't want."

"Attention from who?" A voice asked. They turned around; hearts hammering, only to see that the speaker was Jason. With him was Trini. "Relax guys." He said holding up his hands in an 'I come in peace' gesture.

"Jason." Ashley breathed. "It's you."

"In the flesh," Jason said, "Now, what's been going on?"

"You mean you don't know?" Andros said in surprise. Jason glanced at Trini, who answered.

"No one's told us anything for days." The other Rangers looked at each other. Finally Andros took a deep breath.

"You remember Trent, right?"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Why can't I figure this out?" Trent roared in frustration. "I've got so many clues! But 'stick?' What on Earth is that supposed to mean?" He upended a table that he had been working at. Dracozord squealed as his master's anger startled him.

Trent offered no apology.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"I knew there was something I didn't like about that guy." Jason said.

"Billy?" Trini asked.

"We're really, really sorry." Ashley said, grabbing Trini's hands comfortingly. Trini looked like she might cry but a surprised shout brought them all crashing back to the present moment.

"Look! Up there!" The woman pointed vaguely at the sky and at once at least fifty heads followed her gaze. Ashley and Andros recognized the shape at once.

"The Astro Megaship." Ashley breathed but then her voice caught. There were dozens of tiny shapes around it, and as she watched lasers were fired.

"Fighters." Andros said coldly. Two of the fighters were caught by the Megalasers, but the rest evaded and formed a shape that every good pilot new meant extreme danger. The Megaship was circled.

Ashley wasn't sure if the ship's pilot knew what had happened or not, but she hoped that everyone on board came out of it okay. To be entirely honest, she didn't know who all was on the ship, apart from Kira, and the kids. And her kid. Greg.

And then the fighters fired.

Every last one of them hit their target. For one hart stopping moment nothing happened, and then it was over.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"You missed!" Taylor shouted, but she was the only one to say anything. They were terrified that the Velocifighters would turn their attention from TJ. Also, another, more present, threat existed.

Greg and Ethan were doing their very best to land the Megawinger. They had successfully gotten through the atmosphere, but now they were skimming about six feet off the ground. They had been planning on landing in the park, lots of empty space and few people; however they hadn't managed to actually halt the ship and were now cruising in the direction of the food court.

Thankfully it was pretty late and the few people that had been there had quickly fled. However, the threat of property damage combined with the fear that they were all going to die in a fiery explosion had them just a little bit nervous.

"Okay, I've got it covered." Ethan said reassuringly. "Kira, open the door."

"We're jumping!" Taylor asked in alarm, even as Kira moved to complete the task he had given her.

"No, I just don't want it to get jammed shut." He griped the controls tighter. "Everyone, hold on."

"Wait, what are you going to—" Greg began but was silenced as the craft tipped violently. Ethan turned the ship in a tight spiral that ended with the Megawinger's side scraping the grass. The ship slowed to a bumpy halt, completely on its side.

"Ethan?" Greg asked.

"Yeah?"

"Don't do that again."

"For once I agree with him." Kira chimed.

"Hey, at least we're all in one piece." Ethan defended.

"Can't say the same about the ship though." Conner said. They filed through the door in the back of the aircraft, Greg with Sam and Kira holding Hannah's hand.

Once outside Kira's eyes widened. "Oh no."

"What?" Hannah asked at her side.

"Conner, Ethan, I just had a really bad thought."

"What?" They asked together. The other Rangers were listening as well and Kira knew it, it was just easier to address her teammates.

"Trent morphed."

"You're kidding right?" Ethan asked. Conner made an exaggerated sign of frustration.

"And I thought this day couldn't possibly get any worse."

"I thought that the power of your Dinogems was depleted in your battle against Mesogog." Shayla said.

"I guess Trent was holding out on us." Conner said coldly.

"Come on guys, there's no use worrying about it now." Leo said.

"Leo's right." Cole agreed. "What comes, comes. Now let's do what we came here to do." The party struck off.

"Besides, if anything does happen," Taylor said draping an arm over Kira's shoulders, "we'll be here to protect you."

"Oh, and that's supposed to be comforting?" Kira teased and Taylor's mouth dropped open in exaggerated surprise as Max laughed and made faces at her behind Kira's back.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Okay, we're here, now what?" Shane asked.

"I don't know." Tori admitted, scanning the horizon. A welcome shape came running up. "Blake!" She called.

"Hey Tori. Listen guys, there's a huge crowd over that way. If they're anywhere, they're there."

"Hey, whose 'they' anyway?" Dustin wondered.

"I'm not entirely sure." Cam admitted. "Cole, the Red Wildforce Ranger, sent the message, so I'm guessing that they were forced off of their island for some reason."

"But why would they call us, and why would they tell us to tell others?" Shane asked. "You don't think that they're trying to assemble all the Rangers do you?"

"No way. No one's ever tried to get all of the Rangers together. I'm not even sure it's possible. Whatever's happening, it can't be that bad."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Alyssa?" Cole asked.

"Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you for a second?" He motioned her a slight ways away from the others.

"What's wrong Cole?" She had noticed that he seemed more then a little nervous.

"Well, we've been going out for a while now, right?" Alyssa nodded, suddenly afraid. Was he breaking up with her? Now, of all times? Alyssa wasn't sure that she could handle that. "I was waiting for a different time, but…I was afraid that there won't be another time."

"Cole, of course there will! We're all together now and—"

"I know, I just…I wanted to be sure I asked you." He bent down on one knee. "Will you marry me?"

Cat: Yup, that's one of my favorite pairings right there, so I'll bet you can all guess the answer! Now, please R and R as the Rangers prepare for battle.


	12. Let's Get Roman

Cat: Hey all! This chapter has a few more emotional bits, but also bunches and bunches of humor. Brace yourselves as the Rangers gear up to take down Trent Fernandez.

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Power Rangers. But maybe if I sold my sister into slavery I could afford it. **

"Hey, I wonder who that is." Kat said, pointing at a large group of people coming towards them from across the field.

"No idea." Kelsey said. Dana and Carter weren't listening, and neither were Ashley, Andros, or Justin, for surprisingly obvious reasons. Kelsey wanted to be supportive of her friends, but not paying attention to what was going on around them could be suicide in their present situation, and she knew that.

"Who who is?" Chad asked. Chad was being a good guy and murmuring comfort at Carter and Dana.

"You can't see anymore." Kelsey grumbled. "There's people in the way." She tried to look around them, but the crowd had shifted and there were dozens of people between her and the strange group. "Come on, we're checking it out." She grabbed Joel—who'd been trying and failing to be supportive--and began tugging him after her.

"What? Wait!" He protested.

"We're gonna go see who it is."

"But what if it's Trent?"

"We're Power Rangers, it's our duty to make sure these people are safe." Kelsey said, trying to invoke his sense of duty. She'd seen enough of the group to know that it wasn't the dreaded White Ranger and was eager to see more detail. Joel looked like he was about to argue further when Kelsey added, "Don't tell me that the Space Cowboy is scared."

"I'm not scared." Replied Joel sharply and he gave up.

"Look! It's Kelsey and Joel." Taylor pointed. "The Lightspeed Rangers must have come here too." Leo said.

"That was lucky." Kimberly said and they hustled forward, eager to be out of the open.

"Ohmigod." Kelsey said, catching sight of faces.

"What do you mean 'ohmigod?'" Joel hadn't really been looking, but he did so now. "Ohmigod." He breathed.

"Come on." Kelsey grabbed him again and again pulled him through the throng of people. "Dana! Carter!"

"Kelsey, not right now." Chad hissed.

"No seriously, you have to come see this, you totally won't believe it." She didn't give them much choice. She pulled Dana away from her husband and led her, still crying, away.

"Ashley, Andros! Justin! You too, come on." Joel urged and the excited two, utilizing all of Kelsey's strong will and Joel's sheer bulk, somehow managed to move the whole group of Rangers to where they could see.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Hannah was the first one to see them. "Mommy!" She shouted happily and began running forward. She then seemed to remember that Kira was leading her and looked up at the yellow ranger.

"Go on." She urged and Hannah dashed forward. Greg, spotting his parents, handed Sam roughly to Kira and ran over. He passed Hannah after about two strides, but then slowed down so as not to seem too eager. Hannah, still running full tilt, stumbled and landed flat on her face. Kira was there in a flash and tried to help her to her feet. The task was made more difficult by the presence of the baby and Taylor came over to help. They brushed a bit of grass off Hannah's knees and pushed her forward again.

By that time Dana was a step away and she lifted her daughter up and held her tightly. Kira handed Sam to Justin and stepped back. She found herself, however, in Ashley's tight embrace. She was released just as the other Ranger began a stream of useless ramble.

"Thank you so much! I knew you'd take care of everything! How did you do it?"

"Do what?" Kira asked uncomfortably.

"Survive the explosion?"

"What explosion?"

"When The AstroMegaship exploded." Ashley seemed nervous.

"The Megaship?" Kira repeated and looked up sharply. Velocifighters still patrolled the sky, but almost lazily. "TJ." She breathed.

"TJ was driving the ship?" Andros appeared. Kira nodded. Andros swallowed but didn't allow his mind to fully process the information. He returned immediately to the task at hand. "I'm glad you guys made it, but we need to get busy."

"Right." Carter agreed. "We need to get these people to safety, and we should probably move the kids somewhere safe." Ashley nodded.

"I'll take care of 'em!" Greg offered instantly. The adults who hadn't been on the Megaship when he was running it—namely the Ligtspeed Rangers, the Astro Rangers, Maya, Kimberly, Justin and such--shot him a withering glare.

"Greg, I think they count you as one of the kids." Kira informed him.

"What! But I can fight! I can—"

"I'll watch them." Shayla said placidly. The parents hesitated, but agreed and Shayla carried Sam and led the toddling twins and Hannah off, Greg muttering to himself as he trailed behind.

"Okay, now to get rid of the crowd." Andros said. "Conner, we're gonna need you for that."

"Me?" He repeated, pointing at his chest. Andros nodded and explained what he needed to do. "Why can't you do it?" He asked Andros as he accompanied him to one of the picnic tables. Kira and Ethan were pushing him through the crowd and Conner was being difficult every step of the way.

"Because you've been in the news recently it makes more sense."

"Come on Conner, it's just a few people. Don't tell me you're afraid of public speaking." Ethan urged.

"I'm not afraid, just a little…." Conner couldn't think up a different word.

"Conner, we'll be standing up there with you, it's no big deal." Kira said and she and Ethan nudged past a few people. They knocked a few people off of one of the benches—and received glares angry enough to roast a marshmallow--as all three Dino Rangers stood on it to gain extra height. Conner turned quickly and made to dash off but both Kira and Ethan grabbed him again. "Conner, I'm on stage all the time. It's no big deal."

"Yeah, but you're brave."

"Flattery will get you no where, dude." Ethan informed him but Kira looked as though she could have argued that point very strongly.

"Don't I get points for trying?" Conner tried hopefully. Instead of responding, Ethan cupped his hands around his mouth and turned to the crowd.

"Excuse me everybody. Can I get your attention for a minute?" Ethan shouted.

"Hey! You're Ethan James! And—and Kira Ford! And Conner McKight!" Bulk said excitedly. No one else seemed to notice "Hey Skull! Look who it is!" Bulk turned around and stared at the crowd of people around.

"HEY!" His shout was about four times as loud as Ethan's. "EVERYONE! THESE ARE POWER RANGERS! SHOW THEM SOME RESPECT!" Instantly everyone was silent. The Rangers glanced at each other, then Kira elbowed Conner in the ribs.

"Go on." She hissed.

"Right um…we're sorry, but this event is canceled. We need for all of you to leave the park." Whispers arose. "Go home. Lock your doors." Conner encouraged. "We're sorry for any inconvenience." There was a pause. As one, every single civilian took off. They seemed to filter around the Rangers like rocks in a shallow stream, who had been scattered among them.

Andros could now see the Wind Rangers, Thunder Rangers, and the Silver Guardians. However, while all the people were leaving, they were running and screaming and spreading mass alarm. "You don't have to panic!" Kira shouted after them, not that it helped much. She sighed and decided that their exit was messy and loud, but also very quick, and the sooner the Rangers got a chance to talk, the sooner Trent was stopped.

Once there were no civilians around, Andros stood up on the bench and the DinoRangers gratefully hopped to the ground.

"Okay, as some of you may know, a new evil has arisen." Andros said. "Trent Fernandez, White Ranger, has deceived us. Using his powers he has mustered an army. He plans on using this army to destroy his fellow Power Rangers." Almost everyone knew this, but it didn't soften the effect of his words. He stepped down. "Conner, Kira, Ethan, you guys are up."

"What?" Ethan asked.

"You assembled us; you guys decided where we go from here." Conner gulped and the other two looked slightly nervous at the short notice.

"Kira, why don't you talk to them." Ethan said.

"Yeah. I like that idea. Besides, you said it yourself, you're on stage all the time." Conner agreed and Kira found herself standing on the bench addressing a bunch of adults, preparing to tell them what to do. She swallowed hard, feeling a twinge of stage-fright at the daunting task.

"We called you all here because we realized that Rangers are strongest as a team." She began hesitantly. Seeing approval, she continued with more confidence. "We were thinking that we could call Trent here, and fight him on our terms."

"So call him all ready." Eric called and Andros nodded in agreement. Kira stepped down and stood between Ethan and Conner.

"Trent." She said into her communicator. "You picked a fight with the Power Rangers, and now we're picking a fight with you. We know that you never figured out those messages you intercepted. They said to meet at Angel Grove. Now we're here and waiting for you."

"You won't be so eager to fight me before long." Trent replied.

"We'll see about that Trent." Conner said and the communication died. The Rangers settled down to wait.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

After a short debate about safe locations the five children were taken to the Juice Bar by Sensei and Shayla. Greg had complained the entire time.

"But MOM! I can fight. And you need fighters!"

"No. I won't let you get involved in this."

"You won't let me do anything! Besides! I'm already involved. Do you think Kira could have run that ship on her own!"

"Go with Sensei and the princess."

"Why can't I?"

"You're too young."

"Only a year younger then you were."

"I'm not arguing this with you."

"Why can't I be a Ranger?"

"Because I said so."

"Is it because of the Trent-thing?" Greg guessed.

"Yes. It's because of the Trent-thing. And because of the Tommy-thing. And the Zordon-thing. And the Kendrix-thing. And because of the Cole-thing. And the Zhane-thing. And the Ryan-thing. Too many Rangers get hurt. It's not like a fairy-tale, Greg!" He was quiet.

"So? I can still fight."

"Good! Because Trent's after you and you had better defend yourself because I swear to God if you die I'll never forgive you!" This new info made Greg feel braver. More important. Less like he was running away. He would have to defend the little kids. He would be facing Trent's army. Maybe even Trent himself. He tugged on Hannah's arm and they hurried to where Sensei was standing just out of earshot. Ashley took a deep breath and thought regretfully that maybe she shouldn't have yelled. But it was too late to do anything about it now.

Dana stepped up just as Shayla and the children disappeared around the corner. "If she dies, I don't know what I'll do."

"Yeah."

"The ship blew up, and I thought…."

"So did I."

"I don't wanna—" She slipped back into the speech of a child in her distress.

"Me neither."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Jason and Trini, who had remained good friends with Ernie, got off the phone with him, after giving him the heads up. They explained only that they were the children of Power Rangers and needed protection, but that was enough. Ernie had compassionately agreed to give them shelter and the Rangers would never forget it.

The Rangers were currently in various states. Some of them were silently standing with their fellows, the first moment of grief they had been allowed. Others were discussing battle tactics. Still others were quietly catching up with friends. The Dino Rangers were sitting on top of one of the pie-eating tables. None of them were speaking.

"What are we gonna do?" Kira asked finally.

"Do?"

"To Trent."

"Whatdya mean 'what are we gonna do'?" Conner asked loudly. "Not only did he lie to us like we're total idiots, but he used his powers to kill a bunch of good people."

"So we're going to kill him?" Ethan said. "We can't do that."

"Well we obviously can't let him go."

"You think you can kill him?"

"No. But what else can we do? I mean. I should be able to. He's a criminal. And a murder. He killed people he didn't even know. And he tried to kill us."

"He was our friend. Our teammate."

"And your boyfriend." Kira ignored that sharp remark, discarding it as stress and exhaustion and fear.

"When did this whole thing get so big? At first it was us. And I was so happy when our zords were fixed. They were like a part of the team. And then Trent tricked them into trying to kill each other."

"And us." Conner added.

"And then I escaped. And Trent left me, Kim, and Maya alone on that island to die. But when we were rescued it was suddenly not about us anymore. It was about everything. People have died! Up until now, there has been one death in Ranger history but now…"

"Now we don't even know how many he's killed. At least eight. The rest are missing. Probably dead." The speaker was Andros. "Here." He tossed a cell phone at them and Conner caught it clumsily. "Call your parents. You're going home."

"What!"

"You're just kids. You shouldn't be mixed up in this."

"Trent's our teammate." Kira reminded him. "We're more mixed up then you are."

"You said it yourself Kira. People have died. A lot of them. Within 72 hours. Trent knows we're waiting for him. He'll throw everything he's got at us."

"We're ready to make a stand." Ethan said.

"Yes. We're as ready as we're ever going to be. But that won't stop it from becoming a last stand. If that happens I won't have the new kids going down with us."

"We've fought Trent before."

"And he's almost killed you before." He said pointedly.

"We've had more experience since then. We're better."

"But you don't have Ranger powers anymore, and Trent does."

"There's three of us and one of him." Ethan said, trying to forget that even when they could morph Trent had still kicked their butts. Repeatedly. Numbers hadn't helped them then, and they probably wouldn't be much good now.

"Trent is one of the most powerful Rangers to have ever lived. Possibly _the_ most powerful. There is only one who could have been a match for him, but that power died a long time ago."

"I wish Dr. O. was here. He'd stick up for us." Kira hadn't managed to bring herself to tell her teammates he was dead. She'd barely managed to admit it to herself.

"Ethan, we all wish he was here. We really do."

"We know Trent's fighting style. Even without powers we have the best chance to defeat him." Kira put in. Andros sighed.

"Call your parents. Explain what's going on. Maybe they can talk you out of it. Maybe they can't. Either way, call them."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"You know, I fell kinda bad about wasting all those pies." Max said. His companions, Joel, Cater, and Justin, murmured their agreement.

"Too bad we can't make use of them." Carter said.

"We could eat 'em." Joel offered.

"That's like five hundred pies." Justin said incredulously.

"So?"

"There are a lot of us." Cater said slowly.

"And it's not like any of us have eaten in a while." Max agreed, equally hesitant.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Hey Mom." Conner said casually into the phone. Kira and Ethan had just called their parents. Kira hadn't been too worried about her parents. Her family was on their annual mountain vacation—which Kira was sorely depressed to be missing—and they wouldn't have telephone access for at least another 24 hours. Ethan had been much more worried, but eternally grateful when no one at his house bother to answer the probably prank phone call that they were receiving at two o'clock in the morning. That left Conner as the only one who had to dread parental wrath. He was taking it with his usual projection of calm. "Yeah, I'm back." He listened to the chatter on the other end. "Well, actually, there is a reason. See, funny story," He played it off and Kira and Ethan both blanched. They'd intended to avoid actually admitting what was happening at all costs. However, they had unanimously agreed that they weren't going to lie on the grounds that if they died, their parents would find out in a hurry that they weren't telling the truth, and also, they didn't want that to be the last thing they ever said to their family.

"Yeah, um, what happened, was, Trent—you remember him right? Yeah, the White Ranger, exactly. Well, he's gone kinda crazy on us so we're all down in Angel Grove for a super smack-down." Conner's arm extended with amazing speed, holding the phone at arm's length to prevent the sheer volume of his mother's shouts from rupturing his eardrum.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'SMACK-DOWN!' YOU PROMISED NO MORE FIGHTING!" All three Dino Rangers winced. And then Mrs. Mcknight said the one thing they had more feared. "I'M COMING TO GET YOU RIGHT NOW!"

"No! Don't!" Conner shouted, still holding the phone away from his ear.

"DO YOUR FRIENDS' PARENTS KNOW ABOUT THIS?"

"Bye Mom, love you." Conner said quickly and hung up.

"How long do you think it'll take before she gets here?" Ethan asked, mildly frightened.

"No idea." Conner admitted. "Trent had better get here soon."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Too many pies!" Max moaned. He, Cater, Joel, and Justin were not the only Rangers to have gathered around the tables. They were also not the only Rangers to have eaten themselves sick.

"So, we used about, what, thirty pies?" Taylor asked.

"More then that!" It has to have been more then that!" Carter exclaimed.

"Actually," Cam corrected, "It was only twenty-seven and a half."

"We're horrible." Trini moaned.

"We've failed the pies!" Conner agreed.

"Don't tell me you tried to eat all these!" Jason exclaimed when he noticed them.

"Fine. We won't." said Kira agreeably.

"There's only one thing to do with five hundred pies." Eric said.

"Oh really? And what would that be?" Taylor asked loudly. Eric ignored her.

"Wes! Jason! Get over here!" he called.

"What's going on?" Wes glanced from Eric to the pies, to Jason, and back to the pies. He knew instantly what they were planning.

"Let's do it." He said.

"You're not!" Trini had realized what they were thinking and sounded scandalized. "That's horrible!"

"What's horrible?" Taylor asked loudly.

"We'll need wood." Jason started listing the necessary materials.

"That's what picnic tables are for." Eric reasoned.

"That's destruction of public property." Trini reminded them. She seemed to have decided not to bother trying to talk them out of it, but rather to ensure that they did whatever they were going to do as safely as possible.

"Wait, what are we doing?" Ethan wondered. Everyone ignored him.

"No one's ever minded before when Ranger destroy things." Conner piped.

"That's the spirit!" Jason shouted happily.

"Besides. It's _public_ property. That means it belongs to everyone. Including us." Wes added.

"Except that you don't live here, meaning you don't pay the taxes. I do." The yellow ranger corrected, hands on her hips in a last ditch attempt to dissuade them. All the guys glanced at each other. In a singular motion they moved to the table and began tearing it to pieces.

"Thanks Trini!"

Damon cracked his knuckles, then his neck, as though warming up for something big. "Let's get Roman."

Cat: Andros and Ashley made a few references to other Rangers in this chapter, and in case you were wondering that they were referring to, here's the list.

**Andros says that there was only one Ranger who was more powerful then Trent:** He was referring to the Green Ranger in MMPR. I figured this because Tommy was supposedly the greatest Ranger, and when he was in the coma in PRDT the only Ranger form of himself that he couldn't defeat was the Green Ranger. Also, having watched many many season of PR, I personally think that the Green Ranger kicks serious butt.

**Ashley lists reasons why she doesn't want Greg to be a Ranger.**

Trent-thing: A perfectly nice guy turning evil and trying to kill everyone.

Tommy-thing: Ditto Trent

Zordon-thing: Dying

Kendrix-thing: Ditto Zordon

Cole-thing: Fighting his parents murder

Zhane-thing: Getting injured to the point he had to be frozen

Ryan-thing: Getting raised by demons, which, admittedly, was not because he was a Ranger but Ashley was trying to prove a point.

Oh yeah, if anyone can tell me what the Rangers are building I will add in any three words you want in the next chapter or any one Ranger who is not present (if they're not here now, they're not coming).


	13. Conner McKnight Has an Idea!

Cat: Hey all! Nobody guessed it! Catapult is close, but I gotta tell you that when my little sister read it she knew exactly what it was. We're such nerds. Also, the Trojan Horse is Greek, not Roman. Anyways, this chapter is pure fun without any real action at all, but it's one of my favorite chapters.

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Power Rangers, but if you do I'll trade you my M and Ms for them. **

"Are they building what I think they're building?" Alyssa asked loudly.

"Yup." Kira said.

"And they're using _pies_?"

"Yup." Tori replied

"I'm not sure if the ancient Romans would have laughed or cried."

"I'm not sure whether _Trent's_ going to laugh or cry."

"His drycleaner will cry." Blake said.

"They could actually injure him with that." Cam said thoughtfully.

"If they throw it at him." Tori snorted.

"Or run him over with it."

"Or throw it at him and then run him over with it."

"Well, we know one thing. If you want a pie you'd better go and get it now." Hunter said.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Several hours later, the bright sun having finally risen to aid their construction, the Rangers stepped back and admired their handiwork. It was originally designed by the Romans for use in war, but modern technology had long ago made it obsolete. But now the weapon was resurrected. It was a trebuchet. Similar to a catapult it could launch up to twelve pies at a time for (by Cam's estimation) about a half mile. Except, instead of using springs to pull down and release as is done with a catapult, a huge weight, in this case a table, was pulled backwards. When released it would swing forward, dragging a tray forward, launching whatever was in it.

"We need a test run." Jason said.

"Who is the most irritating person in the world?" Conner mused.

"Kira?" Ethan suggested, but when the guys looked in her direction she drew a finger swiftly across her throat. They got her message. 'Aim that at me, and you take your safety into your own hands.'

"Hey, has anyone seen Andros recently?" Carter asked.

"You mean he hasn't blown up from stress yet?" Trini asked.

"He's trying to do too much. He needs to relax." Dana agreed.

"We could make him relax." Damon suggested, feeling very demonic.

"We could."

"Do you think he'd murder us?"

"He'd have a hard time getting at all of us."

"It probably wouldn't be an issue." Carlos agreed. Because he had been Andros' teammate, they took this word as the go-ahead and quickly loaded the machine with a pair of cherry pies.

"Not those."

"Why not?"

"They aren't shaped right."

"What does the shape have to do with anything?"

":Nothing. But when we use it for the first time the pies have to be shaped like pies."

"So these aren't round enough?"

"Exactly."

"But they're only a little bit lopsided."

"So?"

"Good point." They quickly swapped out the offending pies.

"Where is he?"

"Over there!"

"Dang it. He's standing with Ashley and Cassie. We'd hit all three."

"Which only means that we need another pie."

At this point about two thirds of the crowd of Rangers was part of the group. A few others were standing close by and watching with interest, now that it had come time to test it. Those remaining were the people who had been too stressed out and panicked and busy to pay much attention to the construction of the device and were oblivious to its completed state.

The Rangers who had built the trebuchet felt evil as they loaded the third pie and slowly wheeled the machine to the proper angle. Those who were watching felt evil not telling Andros, Cassie, and Ashley what was coming. And those who weren't paying attention were soon to feel bad because they missed out.

"Five."

"Four."

"Three."

"Tw—" The trebuchet launched before the countdown was finished and Joel, who had been in charge of releasing it, might have gotten in trouble because of it. Except that three perfectly round pies were sailing through the air coming ever closer to the three unsuspecting Rangers.

They hit them dead on and it seemed to the onlookers like the result was nothing short of an explosion of pie. It was everywhere. Andros, Cassie, and Ashley were covered in it and they looked around madly for the source. Ashley gaped at them in complete shock, but Andros began storming over. Unfortunately for him (but extremely fortunately for everyone involved in the pie-launching) the grass was slick with cherry and he slipped before going more then two steps. He pin wheeled, but landed flat on his butt. For a moment no one spoke. Then Cassie and Ashley made the mistake of making eye contact and they burst into helpless laughter. Ashley helped her husband to his feet, and he grinned slightly.

Everyone how had been standing by the trebuchet decided it was safe to come out of hiding. They grinned and waved energetically at the three pie-soaked Rangers. Others high-fived each other. Cassie jogged over and began a thorough investigation of the machine. Many of the boys, including both Carlos and Damon, seemed more then willing to show off their knowledge of ancient weaponry to the recently single Cassie.

"A pie-loaded trebuchet. How did they come up with that?" Ashley asked.

"Don't ask me. It'll shock Trent thought."

"It shocked you."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the look on your face." She said and lifted a gob of cherry filling off the bridge of Andros' nose with her index finger.

"I was not surprised." Ashley giggled.

"Don't go there."

"What? I wasn't!"

"Sure. Whatever you say."

"You, on there other hand. I think you were pretty surprised." He put his arms around her waist tenderly.

"Whatever you say." Ashley repeated.

"Whatever I say? Works for me." He said and kissed her. Ashley pulled away after a minute, glowing.

"Your lips taste like cherry."

"So do yours."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Okay, I'm cool with kissing and all." Conner said to his fellow Dino Rangers who were watching the scene from a few yards away. "But it's kinda creepy when adults do it."

"I'm with you there. Especially when they're old like that." Agreed Ethan.

"We really shouldn't be spying. Especially because it's so…" Kira trailed off.

"Disturbing?" Ethan offered.

"It sounds so harsh when you say out loud."

"EW! Is he licking her ear!"

"Conner, just look away."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Joel! Share!" Kelsey whined. In response Joel just stood on tiptoes and held the cell phone that his teammate was after high up on his ear.

"Yeah. I'm still here. I can talk for as long as you want."

"Joel! You've had it for a half hour! That battery must be running down by now! I wanna call Jake. Now Give. Me. The Phone!"

"Oh no. There's no one else here. Of course not."

"JOEL!" Kelsey talked him and attempted to wrench the phone from his grasp but he yanked it away at the last possible second.

"Well. Make sure you don't wear yourself out. Oh yeah. I'll keep that in mind."

There was by this time a small audience watching the two battle it out. It was almost a Ranger-sporting event, complete with cheering and booing depending on who was winning. The witnesses seemed to have taken two sides, both of which were jumping up and down with equal excitement.

"No. There's no one else with me. Just you. Of course I'm not hogging the only phone. Where would you get an idea like that?"

"Fork. It. Over!" Kelsey punctuated her words with swift blows to Joel's stomach and at long last managed to pry the cell phone from his hands.

"Hi Ms. Fairweather." Kelsey said pleasantly. Joel had recovered and lunged at her. "Everything's great here." She said even as she began running full-tilt across the park to avoid a very irate green Ranger. "We're all just hanging out. Waiting for Trent. Eating pie. But uh, listen. Joel's gonna have to call you back. Yeah. Okay. You too." And then she hung up.

Joel threw his hands up in defeat.

"Sorry. You're gonna hafta call her back later."

"Hey. If I can't talk to my wife, then you can't talk to your boyfriend."

"I let you talk to her for ages."

"You did not. You stood there breathing down my neck and telling me to hurry up the entire time."

"So?"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"I wonder what would happen if I just stood up and shouted 'Trent!'" Conner said mildly.

"Probably about the same thing that would happen if you shouted "fire!" in a crowed movie theater." Answered Kira dryly.

"Well, I've never done that so I don't know what happens."

"You get arrested is what happens." Ethan muttered. "Causing a panic unnecessarily is very dangerous."

"Hello!" An irritatingly cheery voice piped behind them. All three Rangers wheeled around., none of them expecting who they saw.

"Cassidy?" Ethan asked in surprise.

"Devin?" Kira greeted the other person. "What are you guys doing here?"

"See, first we followed Blake here to get an interview, but then we found out that you're here, and since you're the Power Rangers we thought—" Cassidy cut short Devin's ramble.

"We want to know what's going on."

"Um. No. Sorry." Conner said, not sounding very sorry at all.

"You guys have to get out of here." Kira added.

"Not until you tell us what's happening."

"I so cannot deal with this."

"Hey!" Devin said mildly. "Is that Carter? Red Ranger?" The Rangers groaned.

"Omigod!" Cassidy squealed in delight.

"Okay. You're leaving. Now." Kira said and she and Ethan began pushing the two toward the park entrance.

"Hey! Back off!." Cassidy complained but the Rangers ignored her.

"Conner, give us a hand here." Ethan ordered but Conner didn't move.

"Wait. I have an idea."

Kira, Ethan, Cassidy, and Devin all stopped and exchanged glances. As one they said, "Conner Mcnight has an idea!"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Why did they tell us to look for Dr. Oliver?" Devin asked as he and Cassidy wandered aimlessly through the science teacher's house. He drew a star pattern in the dust on the coffee table and his index finger traced a path up the spine of a minute T-rex skeleton.

"Who cares? What I want to know is, why they left him behind in the first place." Cassidy flipped idly through some homework papers that Dr. O. had never actually remembered to return to the students. "And, they had better reimburse us for gas."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Why hasn't Trent attacked yet?" Shane asked.

"No idea." Tori replied.

"He's probably gathering all the little bits of his army that were spread out through space." Cam answered.

"What if he's not even planning on attacking us?" Dustin wondered.

"Why would he go to all this trouble and then just give up?" Shane shot back.

"I don't mean give up. I mean, what if he just drops a bomb on Angel Grove and we all die?" There was silence at this.

"That is a miserable thought Dustin."

"Besides, I don't think you exactly have anything to worry about." Cam scrambled to his feet and the others followed his gaze.

Cat: Only one chapter to go! However, if you aren't all nice and review then I'll make it two and give you a horrible awful cliffie.


	14. It's Pink Cause It's Magic

Cat: Hey all! I know that there is a lot of confusion with so many characters involved in this story. I had a lot of trouble keeping up with them all myself. In fact, I used a list, which I have decided to include here.

**Rangers in the Final Battle: **Andros**-**Ashley**-**Carlos-Cassie-Conner-Ethan-Kira-Max-Danny-Cole-Alyssa-Taylor-Blake-Hunter-Tori-Cam-Shane-Dustin-Maya-Kimberly-Jason-Trini-Justin-Leo-Damon-Wes-Eric-Kat

**Disclaimer: If I owned the Power Rangers, battlings, quantrons, putrids, tyranodrons, putties, kelsacks, and prianadrones would all have much shorter names so that I wouldn't have to type them.**

Cam had never been very good at counting crowds, so there was no way he could estimate the size of the force before them, but it was large. Battlings, Quantrons, Putrids, Tyranodrons, putties, kelsacks, and prianadrones were staring them down menacingly. Jason, Trini, Kat, and Justin ran to the trebuchet and loaded it hurriedly as the other Rangers stopped whatever it was they were doing and ran to form a very long line.

"We've faced forces this huge before." Andros reminded them, practically shouting to be heard by all.

"Yeah, but there's no Zordon to bail us out this time." Cassie said quietly. If anyone heard her, no one commented.

A misty shape shot over the horizon before coming into starling clarity. The Dracozord did a barrel roll and Trent hopped off, landing casually at the front of his troops. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the Ranges while the Dracozord flapped loudly and disappeared into the sky.

"Trent! This is your last chance!' Andros shouted at him. "Surrender now!'

"Or what?"

"Or we'll take you down."

"I'd like to see you try."

"Ready Rangers!"

"White Ranger. Dino Power." Trent was matched by various morphing shouts, and when the Rangers stood arrayed in their full glory, several explosions went off behind them in various colors. Ethan wondered briefly where they had come from, but didn't pay too much attention to them.

Trent pointed his quill at them and shouted "Charge!"

His troops ran forward, but barely got two steps before Jason shouted "Fire!" The trebuchet went off, pelting the enemy with pies of all flavors. Several tripped and fell and Trent himself was bombarded by them. He stumbled backwards, giving Andros ample time to shoot him twice with his Astoblaster.

Trent recovered in time to parry a blow from Ashley and then the Rangers were separated by the army.

Surrounded by monsters of all kinds Trent was safely behind the first wave. No one could even get close to him. The other Rangers' attention was diverted from him for the moment as they struggled to remain a unified force. Kira and Ethan managed to stick together, but Conner was separated from them, just as Kelsey was separated from Carter, Dana, and Joel. Cassie and Ashley found themselves split apart from Andros and Carlos.

Max and Danny were fighting together as a pair and Taylor, Alyssa, and Cole made a powerful threesome. Jason and Trini had thrown themselves into the fray after making certain that Justin and Kat could work the trebuchet.

Surprisingly enough the large machine was actually a big help. The pies slowed and irritated their enemies and the swinging motion that the machine invoked to launch the pies had proven highly defensive for those who could wield it, as it proved disastrous for anything that got too close.

Blake and Hunter were making good on their Thunder Ninja training, and, by some small miracle, all of the three Wind Ninjas had managed to stick together and were showing themselves to be fierce fighters. Cam and Damon were standing back to back. Both Green Rangers battling their hardest and Maya and Leo were about a hundred Quantrons away from them.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Ew! What are these things?" Kira asked as she whacked a thin black creature with large red circles around its eyes.

"Battling." Carter called over the battle.

"It's really ugly."

"Coming from someone who fought Traynodrons, I really don't think that means much, Kira." Ethan grunted as he tried and failed to wrestle another battling off of himself. Kira grabbed the offending monster and flung him several feet.

"But they don't have the creepy eyes." She continued. Ethan got a good look at those creepy eyes as he traded blows with an oncoming pair of battlings.

"Point taken."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Is Trent laughing at us?" Ashley asked as she did in a kelsack.

"What?" Cassie laughed at the sheer randomness of the question.

"Well, most bad guys laugh when they think they've won, so I was just wondering if Trent's laughing." She explained without a break in the battle around them.

"How do you think of things like that at times like these?"

"Hey. I'm running on virtually no sleep."

"Good point. And yes, he's probably laughing."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"How many do you think there are?" Damon asked, panting slightly.

"No idea." Cam turned his attention briefly to his communicator. "Cyber Cam." The alternate Cam anticipated his question.

"Man, you don't wanna know."

"That many?" Damon groaned.

"Apparently there are that many." Cam affirmed grimly.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Breaking and entering, huh?" A voice asked. Cassidy and Devin both spun around.

"Oh, you see, um, sir." Devin bumbled. The figure laughed.

"What are you doing here?"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Okay, I'm tired of this." Andros said.

"Whatcha gonna do?" wondered Carlos.

Andros pressed the large '03' button on his wrist and shouted, "Red battalized Ranger!" at the top of his lungs. Several putrids were blown backwards by the explosive morph alone.

"All right!" Carlos said excitedly.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"I hate my life." Conner grumbled to himself as he tripped a pirannadron. "All I wanted to do was play soccer and date girls. But nooooooo. I had to be a Ranger. And save the world." Using his super speed he dodged a pair of attackers who ran headfirst into each other with an audible smack. "And there wasn't even a super cute Pink Ranger on the team."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"I'm on twenty-eight, what about you?" Ethan asked.

"I'm not counting!" replied Kira shrilly.

"You're not?"

"Of course not. Ten bucks says you're the only person here who's counting."

"Deal."

"I cannot believe we just made a bet in the middle of the fight of our lives."

"We're horrible." Ethan agreed casually before getting slightly distracted by the onslaught of opponents.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Kat and Jason had given up on shouting 'Fire' after the first few dozen times, and were now just giving a very general warning.

"Look out!" No one moved away because no one had been near it. Even the opposing army had given up on trying to defeat the modified picnic table. A few Rangers had found out the hard way that the machine was as dangerous to those operating it as to the enemy. As a result Kat and Justin were being left alone and the trebuchet was given a wide berth by all.

Several pies (most of which had been smashed in the rush to get them loaded) went sailing through the air to strike a group of quantrons near Trent.

"What do we have to do to hit that guy!" Kat asked in exasperation, having been trying to hit the White Ranger for over seven pie-loads and repeatedly missed.

"If I knew, we'dve hit him." Justin said as he tossed a cherry pie into the trebuchet.

"Maybe we just need a little luck. Try shouting something lucky."

"Like what? 'Seven!'!"

"I don't know!" Kat whined. "Anyway, let's try this again."

"Timber!" Justin yelled and the machine released.

"Let me guess, you've always wanted to say that."

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Lucky guess." She answered dryly. Then she caught sight of Trent. He was completely covered in sticky cherry filling and they could practically feel him glaring at them through his helmet.

"Score!" Justin whooped, throwing a fist into the air and making sure that Trent could see how excited he was.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"As long as we're stuck fighting his goons, no one can get at Trent." Taylor complained loudly.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" Cole asked his temper as frayed as the yellow Ranger's.

"I don't know! Just let me be a bitch!"

"Whoa. Can do." Cole and Alyssa backed a couple steps away.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Okay, no one hates to admit this more then I do, but there are way too many." Tori said.

"It's not too many more monsters then were resurrected from the Abyss of Evil."

"Try two or three times more, Dustin." Shane said dryly.

"We only won then because we got at Lothor." Tori continued.

"Well, if you know how to get to Trent, I'm up for ideas."

"Learn to fly." Suggested Dustin.

"Or we could just try to throw you really far."

Dustin looked mildly afraid.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Hey there. You want another lemonade?" Ernie asked. Beth and Kerri felt very important sitting on the high stools at Ernie's bar.

"Yeah yeah!" Beth said eagerly and Ernie grinned as he handed her her forth drink. He shifted Sam in his arms and the super-babysitter moved to the table where Hannah was happily coloring.

"Whatcha drawing there?"

"A pony. See. The pony is pink cause she's magic." Hannah explained, showing him.

"Wow. I see that. That's really good, Hannah!" He glanced back up at the bar where Greg was nursing a soda. He was jamming the straw repeatedly into the ice irritably, frowning. "What about you? You doing okay over there?"

"Um, my parents are under attack and I'm hanging out with a bunch of kids, _coloring_. I don't know. Am I okay?" He said angrily.

"Look. Greg. Your parents were just worried, I'm sure. I knew your mother. She'd never forgive herself if anything happened to you."

"Oh yeah, and, when I'm an orphan, I'll never forgive her either."

"Greg." Ernie said seriously. "Your parents are going to be fine."

"You wanna bet on that?" Greg looked at him so seriously, almost daring him to disagree, that Ernie could think of nothing to say.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Oh thank God." Ashley breathed as Andros came skimming over the heads of the enemy army, spilling them in every direction. The crowd around them briefly broke up and the four Astro Rangers were reunited.

"Am I ever glad to see you." Cassie agreed.

It was then that the army regrouped. Every tyranodron within striking distance attacked at once. The Rangers didn't even have time to react, let alone defend. The battilizer shattered and their Ranger transformations failed.

Suddenly, they were scared.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Okay, I'm bored and I'm tired and I'm hungry." Kira complained.

"You wanna take these and I'll take the next ones?" Ethan asked, motioning at the circle of batlings the surrounded them.

"Sounds good." Kira said and a group of the enemy rushed forward. They were quickly dealt with with one short ptera-scream. A second group ran in to replace them instantly and Ethan easily fended them off.

"I'm still bored and tired and hungry."

"So am I."

Kira grabbed a nearby battling and started pounding it furiously on the head. "Do something interesting!" she ordered. The battling struggled madly and squeaked a little.

"Kira! Calm down!" Ethan sounded mildly panicked as he pried his friend off of the creature. The battling stumbled backward, knocking into three of its fellows and disappeared. For a moment none of them seemed willing to attack the clearly insane Ranger.

Kira just stood there panting and Ethan just stood there staring at her. "Sorry. I'm okay." She said finally.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Greg! Get down!" Ernie ordered. He lifted Hannah and dropped her on the far side of the bar, sheltering her. Beth and Kerri had slid to the floor there as well and Ernie practically dropped Sam to the floor. A horde of stingwingers stood in the doorway. Greg grumbled, but did as he was told.

Hannah gripped him tightly. "I want Mommy." She wailed. Her cry upset the twins who broke into identical sobs. Those tears upset Sam who shrieked loudly.

"God help me."

Ernie lunged at the first of the attackers, baseball bat in hand. He knocked it aside and moved to a second one. However, in his distraction two opponents teamed up behind him and sent him flying. He landed on the safe side of the bar with the children, slightly woozy.

Greg swung into action, pulling the Astroblaster from his pocket. Four shots rang out before Ernie recovered. "What are you doing!" He hissed.

"Saving your ass." Ernie glanced at him, then at the stingwingers.

"Promise me you'll stay back here."

"Fine."

"Good." Ernie grabbed his bat again and threw himself back into the fray.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Leo was propelled backwards and he tumbled onto his back, rolling smoothly over his head to land with a thump on his stomach. Maya landed heavily on top of him. Both yellow and red Ranger transformations faded.

"Sorry." Maya muttered, getting off of him.

"Don't worry about it."

"Do you think we're going to die?"

"Do you really wanna know?"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Ouch pain." Max informed the world as his sore, and probably dislocated, elbow collided with a tyranodron.

"Ouch." Danny agreed as he tripped a second tryanodron over his slightly bloody left leg. Both Rangers were un-morphed and struggling.

"Ouch!' Max cried in earnest as he found himself head butted. He rolled across the rough and spiky spine and crashed into ground, releasing a cloud a dust. He got to his feet slowly, grumbling.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Are we dead yet?" Alyssa asked.

"Too tired to be dead." Cole replied.

"Dying is NOT AN OPTION!" Taylor shouted at the top of her lungs. Cole wondered if she was talking to them, or trying to reassure herself.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Get another pie! Quick!" Kat shouted. The heat of battle was causing her to mildly spaz and preventing her from standing still and speaking in a normal tone of voice.

"There are no more!" Jason shouted back.

"What do you mean there are no more! There have to be more!"

"We're all out!" Jason said, lowering his voice to speaking tone and clambering to the top of the trebuchet.

"What do we do now?"

"The Astro Rangers need our help!" from his vantage point Jason could see almost the entire battle. "Let's go." With a clear idea of the direction that they needed to movie in, they passed swiftly through the crowd.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

A scream rent the air but Damon couldn't identify it. His mind flashed back to the battle on Merinoi, but a quick hit from a piranatron brought him smashing back to the present.

"You okay?" Cam asked.

"No. I can't take much more of this."

"I don't think any of us can."

There was more screaming and a few indistinguishable shouts.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Ashley flinched in anticipation of a blow. There was a crashing sound and when her eyes refocused she smiled. "Kat. Justin."

"Hi there." Justin said brightly.

"Backup! Yes!" Carlos cheered. The attack of a nearby Quantron informed them all with a blaze of sparks that they were going to need much more backup than the two Rangers could provide.

"Does anyone have a last-minute-butt-saving plan?" Justin wondered.

"I don't." Andros admitted.

"I don't think any of us do." Cassie agreed.

"So, then what happens to our butts?" asked Justin.

No one answered him.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

_Oh my God. It's over. People are hurt and dying and…_Conner thought miserably. _If there is a God, don't let it end this way. _He had to do something. Had to do anything. He could just stand there and fight stupid monster after stupid monster. It wasn't getting them anywhere. And then he tried something desperate. He knew it was desperate. He knew it would come across as desperate. But that this point, he didn't mind being desperate.

"TRENT!" He called at the top of his lungs. "STOP IT NOW!"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"That sounded like Conner." Ethan said in surprise.

"Yeah. I wonder what's up."

Then, to everyone utter amazement, Trent responded.

"Why should I?" He called from out of sight.

"BECAUSE YOU'RE BEING A--," _insert the noun of your choice here._

There was silence. Swords clanged, lasers fired but the Rangers could hardly hear them. They fought, but in a detached sort of way. Because at that moment they all knew that Trent's response would govern their fate, and the fate of their world.

Cat: Hey. I'm sorry. I know I said I'd make it one chapter but I added a bunch of parts that I didn't have originally which made it about twice as long. The next chapter will be the last.


	15. Guys, You're Overreacting

Cat: Hey all! Last chapter! I'm actually depressed! I've had so much fun writing this! However, I do have a few ideas for a sequel. If anyone is interested, leave me a note.

**Disclaimer: Alas! Alas! **

And then the response came.

Without a visible sign or audible command the entire army drew back. They collected together like dirt in a vacuum, with much commotion and movement.

None of the Rangers moved. Instead they looked at each other, everyone doing a mental head count. Kelsey was leaning heavily on Dana and Max appeared to be unconscious. No one had escaped uninjured, and some were more severely hurt then others. But everyone was there, and everyone was breathing.

And before them was Trent, his face unreadable behind the White Ranger mask. Finally, he spoke. "What did you call me?"

Conner repeated himself, though not in an intense shout this time. Kira and Ethan rushed behind him in support of their teammate.

"What makes you think I care?"

"Because, you think you're going to be respected? Are you crazy? Oh look at me. I'm Trent and I can order a bunch of mindless troops to kill people that I've never met before." He mocked. It was strange to hear the situation summed up in such a way, but that was the situation.

"You'll pay for that!" Trent lunged. He hit Conner hard before Kira and Ethan rushed forward and pushed the White Ranger backward using all their combined strength.

The other Rangers moved to help but Trent held up a hand. "Move, and they strike." He nodded backwards at his army. The Rangers stood stock still.

Trent moved his gaze back to the Dino Rangers. "Now, to deal with you." They took an impulsive step back, suddenly realizing what they had just gotten themselves in to.

"Oh shit." Conner said under his breath. "Sorry guys."

"No worries." Ethan dismissed his apology.

"Yeah. What he said."

"Prepare to be destroyed Rangers."

"Conner!" Cam shouted. "Catch!" A small silver clasp went flying through the air. For a moment it disappeared in the sunlight, but it reappeared just in time for Conner to catch it one handed. He glanced at it, and so did the other three Dino Ranges.

It only took a second for Conner to figure out where it went. His red dino Gem rested peacefully in a wide silver band. The gem was dull but flawless. It was slightly raised in a diamond shape that matched the shape of the metal object perfectly. He slammed the silver metal around the edge of the Gem. There was a crackle of energy as large sum of electrical power was fed directly into the jewel and it glowed a bright, angry red.

Like before there was no clear sign, but Trent's army resumed the attack as soon as Trent realized what Cam had just done. But that wouldn't be able to undo the damage.

"DinoThunder! Power up!"

"Yes!" Ethan shouted.

"All right!" Kira agreed and the Red Dino Ranger stood there, displayed in all his glory. His really, truly, amazingly, pissed off glory.

"Give it up Trent." Conner ordered. Then Trent laughed.

"You could never defeat me, even as the Red Ranger."

"Times change." Conner replied and rushed forward.

Conner managed to land three quick punches due to Trent's pure surprise. However, as soon as the other Ranger recovered he retaliated in full force. Conner took about twice as many hits as he had delivered and stumbled backwards a few feet.

Ethan and Kira glanced at each other and suddenly realized that they should be helping their teammate. When Conner rushed forward again they were right behind him. Blows were exchanged, sparks flew, and the two non-morphed Rangers were quickly thrown aside.

"Still bored?" Ethan asked.

"Not a chance." Kira replied, as both pulled themselves to their feet. They rose just in time to again catch Conner as the Red Ranger was tossed aside.

"That's it." He said furiously. "No more Mr. Nice Guy."

"Since when are you a nice guy?" Ethan wondered.

"Ha ha. Very funny." Conner responded before shouting, "Super Dino Mode!" There was a flash of bright light and Kira and Ethan both stepped back to avoid being lacerated by the excessively long and pointy spikes that sprouted from the Ranger's arms.

"Come on." Trent teased. "Show me something new. Super Dino Mode!"

"Copy cat." Conner accused, charging. He threw a punch that Trent caught casually, twisting his opponent's arm in a direction that human limbs are not designed to turn. Conner yelped and Kira and Ethan ran to his rescue, sending identical blows at Trent's head from either side. The White Ranger released Conner, ducking to avoid being hit by the others. His quick reaction left him open to grabbing both of their ankles at once and pulling, sending both of them crashing to the ground. He was back up fast enough to leap above a kick from Conner and deliver one of his own upon landing. The Red Ranger was sent spiraling off to regroup yet again with his partners. Trent, feeling very proud of himself, pulled out his weapon. Ethan briefly wondered why the ultimate Power Ranger had a feather as his ultimate weapon, and who had thought that it was even remotely threatening. However, he had to admit that right now was not only the most random battle to finally think about this, but also the most inappropriate, and so he pushed it from his mind.

He did so just in time to see Trent unleash his favorite move of all time. Ethan braced himself as the barrage of arrows found their target, though it did him very little good. There was a massive explosion behind the three of them, though it magically didn't touch any of them, or originate from any of the arrows or injure any of the other Power Rangers still locked in a pointless battle somewhere on the fringes of this story. Despite the act that the explosion remained a safe distance from the Dino Rangers, all three (A/N I am not counting Trent as a Dino Ranger at this point on the grounds that Conner, Ethan, and Kira would have excommunicated him in a heartbeat if they had considered it) went flying through the air, screaming in a combination of fear and pain, though mostly in pain.

When they landed, Conner was in intense pain. Ethan was in even more intense pain because he hadn't been morphed at the time. He could barely move, and when he did it hurt too much. So he just lay on the ground, deciding to take a few seconds--or possibly hours--for him to quietly recover. Kira was unconscious.

Conner fought to his feet. "You're gonna pay for that." He swore.

"Good guys always say that."

"Good guys always win, remember?"

"There's a first time for everything." Because he couldn't think of an answer, Conner decided to attack again. However, he only lasted twenty seconds before he was back on the ground beside his teammates. His Red Ranger morph was gone, though whether it was because he'd used up al the energy or because he was just getting that badly beat up Conner wasn't intelligent enough to judge.

Ethan and Kira (who had regained consciousness during those twenty seconds) helped pull Conner back to his feet wearily. They watched in total fear as Trent pulled out his feather-weapon again. A smart or powerful Ranger might have thought of dodging but the Dino Rangers were just too tired and they just stood there as their doom inched closer.

Trent laughed as he brandished his sword. "It's over Rangers." And then he fell over.

A surprisingly heavy shape disentangled itself from the Ranger before he could get seriously injured. Conner, Ethan, and Kira just stared. They had been saved.

"Did ya miss me?" Dr. O. asked brightly.

"Awesome timing dude." Conner said approvingly.

"Yeah. No lie, that was sweet." Ethan agreed.

"You're okay!" Kira observed.

"Not for long!" Trent swore, standing and facing the four Rangers. The Dino Rangers huddled together, though they attempted to look brave and threatening about it.

"It's not over yet, Trent." Dr. O. replied.

"Wanna bet, Rangers?" They met in combat yet again, though this time the four Rangers managed to somewhat hold their own.

"Anyone got a plan!" Conner asked desperately. Notice I said, 'somewhat.'

"Trying to think of a plan, trying to think of a plan." Kira chanted. "I got nothing."

"I might have one." Ethan offered.

"Perfect. What do we do?"

"Dr. O. I need you to keep him busy." Ethan instructed, and proceeded to outline the plan to the others. However, he somehow managed to do it in a way that prevented Trent from listening. Mostly he accomplished this by whispering whenever the tide of battle brought anyone close to him. Eventually though, he managed to explain it fully.

"What if we hit Dr. O.?" Kira asked.

"Try not to." Suggested Conner.

"Don't worry about me, just do it!" The science teacher ordered courageously. This in no way prevented the others from worrying, it was however, the correct thing to say, and the Rangers sprung into action.

Dr. O. took over the brunt of the physical hand to hand fighting, though Trent was clearly superior. This meant that Conner, Kira, and Ethan had exactly seven seconds to accomplish their goal. Spreading out they each took one corner of a triangle and pulled out their, until then, forgotten weapons. The Astroblasters. Kira had never liked Greg so much as she did at that moment. They aimed quickly.

"One." Conner shouted. "Two." Dr. O. dove out of the way, leaving Trent as the lone target. "Three!" It had never been decided whether they were all going to fire on 'three' or on the beat after it. By some miracle however, they all fired on three. At the same exact instant all three beams struck their target and Trent cried out.

His White Ranger transformation shattered into a billion tiny pieces. He staggered backward fearfully and in pain, and the Dino Rangers lowered their weapons.

"Give it up, Trent!" Conner shouted.

"You may think you've won!" He said warningly. In the sky, the Dracozord gave a shrill cry as it rushed to its master's aid. "But you haven't. I'll be back!" He promised manically. The other Rangers leapt back as the massive zord landed before them "I'll be back!" And he grabbed a hold of the zord's beak and it took to the sky.

Left leaderless, the entire army scattered back to their own separate corners of the universe, where, unknown to the Rangers, infighting would eventually destroy them fully, preventing anyone from ever accessing their combined powers again.

Back in the present, Dr. O. immediately turned to his communicator. "Haylie! We need zords!"

"On their way." She replied and two near identical shapes came spiraling out of the clouds.

"Eaglezord!" Taylor shouted happily.

"And Pterazord!" Kira ID-ed her zord as well.

"Magically working together after hating each other all this time?" Conner asked skeptically.

"No way." Ethan agreed. However, it was indeed to two flying yellow zords, former archenemies, that went speeding after the Dracozord. It took them a minute to catch up with the other, and the Rangers watched with baited breath as three shape engaged in a quick tussle in the skies. One fell and the other two squealed and flapped back over to the Rangers. The returning heroes were greeted with cheers from everyone present.

"So, any bets on whether or not Trent will actually be coming back?" Kira asked the Blue Ranger. Ethan shrugged.

"Even if he does, he'll be short something kinda important." Conner said, pointing to the White Dino Gem, which rested in the grass in three perfect pieces.

"Any idea how we're going to move those without turning evil?" Ethan asked.

"I'll get to work on that." Dr. O. said casually.

"Oh. Wow." Kira said.

"What?"

"I just realized something." Conner groaned. Kira hadn't realized anything good in ages. "We won."

"Hey! We did!" Conner said happily. "I never have to eat another pie again!"

"Pie?" Dr. O wondered.

"You seriously missed out, Dr. O." Ethan informed him.

"Obviously. But tell me about the pie."

"Oh snap." Conner said, a look of complete terror flashing across his face. His teammates paled and hesitated before turning to see what he was staring at.

"Do I wanna know?" wondered Kira.

"No." Ethan had finally gathered up the courage to turn and look. "You really don't." Dr. O turned, and his face crumpled into confusion.

"I don't get it." He admitted.

"We're so dead." Conner's face hadn't changed at all.

"Totally." Ethan agreed.

"Guys, you're overacting." Dr. Oliver said casually. "It's just your parents."

"WHAT?" Kira whirled around. Sure enough she saw her parents' blue Escalade roll to a stop in the grass next to a much smaller silver Corolla. Ethan's parents spilled out of the car, with Conner's mother storming out of the driver's seat. "No! They're supposed to be in the mountains! What're we gonna do?"

"No idea." Ethan admitted, fear driving all thoughts from his mind.

"We could run." Conner suggested.

"Too late." Kira whispered, trying to keep any of the adults from hearing. They were now mere inches from the teens, glaring daggers.

"Hello. How are you doing?" Dr. O. asked, trying to be amicable. He was completely ignored.

"Dr. O. Help!" Ethan whimpered.

"I'm trying." He hissed. To the parents he said, "I know you must have been a little worried but really everything is fine and—"

"Conner Daniels McKnight." His mother began. "You do not hang up on your mother, do you understand that?"

He nodded furiously. "Good. Now get in the car." He nodded again. Kira took one glace at her parents and dashed off after Conner. They slid quickly into the backseat of the Escalade and huddle together near the middle, staring out the windshield as their friend's fate was decided.

Ethan refused to look up from the ground, but that didn't stop him from quaking. "Get. In. The car. Now." His father ordered through teeth that might as well be stuck together with peanut butter.

"Yes, sir." Ethan said quickly and outright ran to rejoin his team.

"What are we gonna do?" Kira asked again. They were now all watching their parents interact with their teacher from the safety of the backseat.

Ethan glanced out the side windows and then back towards their parents. At last his gaze fell on the keys dangling tantalizingly from the ignition.

"No." Kira said the instant she realized what he was thinking.

"Yes!" Conner cheered. Kira swallowed and examined her options with as much calm as she could muster. She could either ride in a car with her angry parents and face their wrath when they arrived home, with a possible teaser on the way, or she could ride in a car with her possibly insane teammates, making her parents even angrier, and face their wrath later. It didn't take her long to decide.

"I know how to get to my family's mountain house." She offered. Conner leapt into action. Crawling over the seats he fell into the driver's seat, Kira following into the one beside it. She slammed her hand down on the locks just as Conner jammed the ignition. The engine burst into life and all the adults looked horror stricken as the three teens escaped into the dawn.

Cat: The end! Hope you all liked it! Now pretty please review for me!


	16. Epilouge: Kira Mourns

Cat: Hey all! This is a little addition. There is no humor. If you like a happy ending DO NOT READ! However, some of you wanted to see a little Kira/Trent and I thought it was appropriate since the show seriously supported it. However, I am pro Kira/Ethan, so there is a tiny bit of that as well. The italics are flashbacks, some to the show and one to an earlier part of the story.

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers. If I did I would sell it and buy tickets to see the Lion King on Broadway because I just saw it over the weekend and it rocks my socks. **

Kira drove down the highway, noticing dully that the radio station was going in and out of focus as they neared the edge of its signal. Conner snored loudly in the back and beside her Ethan leaned forward to adjust the station.

She sighed, though neither of the boys noticed. The mind-numbing sameness of the road left Kira very little to do but think. And as they traveled there was only one topic that kept resurfacing.

"_This is Kira. She doesn't talk." Ethan offered, cheerfully teasing her. "We've been trying for years, but…" Kira was completely mortified, but Trent laughed. _

She blinked a few times and repositioned her hands on the wheel. She was not going there. She promised herself for the fifth time that morning. It was over. In fact, there wasn't anything ever there to be over now. Hell, he hadn't even asked her to the prom.

"_You almost annihilated me!" She shouted, hot rage pouring through her. _

"_But once I saw that it was you…" He protested but Kira wasn't listening. _

'He never liked you. He was one of those sickos that Dr. O. talks about. The ones who want to talk over the world.' She reminded herself. 'Besides, you are so not going there'. A sharp horn snapped her back to the real world and informed her loudly that she was veering out of the lane. Ethan pulled back into the seat as Kira jerked the car back into the middle of the lane. Conner snored on.

_Kira gazed in horror at the Ruby Dragon card on the floor at Anton Mercer's feet. She knew exactly what it meant, and her eyes darted to Trent. The look of guilt on his face told her everything. He had known. He had known and not told her. _

"Hey Kira, you getting tired? 'Cause I'll drive if you need." Ethan tried to guess at why she was zoning.

"No. No. Just, yeah. Whatever."

"Oh. Okay." She didn't process his tone of voice.

_She watched the explosion from a distance, and felt hope die within her. "No! He can't be gone!" They may have been the same words she'd used for Dr. O, but with Trent it meant something different. She needed him to not be gone. She needed it badly. _

'Do. Not. Go. There.' She instructed mentally yet again. She decided that she was a very bad listener as she brought her driving back into clear focus. Lane, check. Right mirror, check. Left mirror, check. Rearview mirror, check. Lane, check.

"_That's it." Trent spat. "No more Mr. Nice Guy." _

"_Since when are you a nice guy?" Ethan shot back. It was just banter, but it cut her to the core. He was a nice guy. He was. _

Kira brought her mind back to the road yet again. She was surprised to find her vision hot and blurry.

"Ethan." She said hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"Maybe you should drive."

Cat: R and R. And you should all know that I am writing a squeal right now and it should be up very very soon.


End file.
